Collage Diaries
by GydroZMaa
Summary: Leon (Hong Kong) and Emil (Iceland) are now freshmeat at the prestigious and renown Eliatha University, home to only the best of the best academics and athletes. However, with every college comes awkward moments, new faces mixed with old, and a little bit of mismatched drama in between. This story is a quirky collection of various experiences one might face in real college.
1. Chapter 1

Lukas and Emil's parents were in a separate car. Since Eliatha University was a on a fixed academic calendar, both of the brothers were moving to the dorms on the same day. This would be Emil's first year at the university. He was, as some upperclassmen liked to call him, "freshmeat."

Since one car wasn't big enough to haul both of their belongings to the university, the family had to take two cars: one with Emil's things and one with Lukas'. Lukas and Emil were in one car—Lukas being the driver—and their parents were in the other. The car the brothers were sitting in had Emil's things. The little questions about whether or not Emil had forgotten anything at home had died down after the first hour of driving. Other than the occasional comment about the scenery and a driver's poor motor skills, the drive was rather quiet.

"Are you nervous?" Lukas asked as the road sign displayed the words, "ELIATHA UNIVERSITY NEXT EXIT."

"No," Emil responded. "You survived. I'll be able to, too. Besides, Leon's going to be rooming with me."

Lukas blinked and adjusted his hairpin. "If you ever want to practice safe sex, you know you can just call me—"

"We're _not_ a couple," Emil snapped. "We've been through this many times. It'd be awkward if we lived with each other if that were the case. Just drop it, Lukas."

His older brother only chuckled. "You never know."

"I do know. We're friends. End of story."

"Really?" Lukas smiled. "I think it's just beginning."

Leon honestly didn't know why his entire family had to come. It was very possible for just him and Cheng to go to the university. Yao and Mei didn't have to tag along.

"This is really nostalgic," Mei wistfully sighed. "I remember when I used to drive up here."

"It certainly brings back memories," Cheng smiled. "I remember how nervous you were when you first moved in."

"Yeah," Leon's cousin laughed. "Leon, you're lucky. You already know Emil so you won't have to go through all of that adjusting stuff with your roommate."

"I suppose," he shrugged. He thought he would have been able to adjust either way, but knowing how insecure and quiet Emil could be, he couldn't bring himself to _not_ dorm with him. It would be better this way.

"Aiya, we're almost there." Yao pointed to the sign saying Eliatha University was at the next exit. "Jialong, when we're there, how about we stop by your cafeteria commons and eat?"

"Don't call me that," Leon distastefully groaned. "You do know that, like, every time you go into the D.C. I have to give up one of my meal tickets, right?"

"D.C.?" his guardian repeated, confused.

Leon rolled his eyes. Cheng and Mei wore understanding smiles since they were familiar with Yao's tendency to disregard abbreviated norms.

"D.C. is short for dining commons," Cheng explained. "It's basically the cafeteria where everyone eats."

"Oh. I knew that," Yao said, waving his hand as though it was a passing matter. "But I only wanted to go to see if they are giving you proper nutrition."

"They are," Leon sighed. "It's not high school anymore. It's Eliatha University, one of the highest ranked universities in the world. Of course they feed their students well. I went there for my orientation, and you've been there when you picked Mei up. Don't show your stupid face around me."

"Leon, manners," Cheng politely reminded him.

"Stupid," he grumbled and sank into his chair. It was a good thing Yao was driving or he might have kicked him for being so incompetent. He was going to be glad when he could finally settle in the dorm.

Emil had seen Eliatha University a few times before when he had agreed to go with his parents to either pick up or drop off Lukas from his dorm. Before being accepted into the school, he had always seen it as an intimidating place where knowledge of the sophisticated and ambitious came to gather. Now that he was officially attending this school as a university, it was distantly starting to already feel like a second home.

"We're here," Lukas said as he turned off the car engine and unbuckled his seatbelt. "I'll help you unload here, and you can go get your room information."

"Yeah, yeah," Emil grunted as he got out of the car. Throughout the unloading area, there were bold, colorful signs with arrows telling him which way he needed to go for registration. There were already other freshmen walking towards the arrows, most with wide eyes and unsure expressions. Emil figured he might as well be that type of person if it wasn't for the fact that Lukas had told him where to go before arriving.

On the way to the registration room, Emil heard what sounded like a family bickering and yelling to one another. Upon closer inspection, he heard that whatever they were saying was in some sort of Chinese. Leon spoke Chinese—Cantonese to be specific. Coincidentally enough, when he turned in the direction of the noise, he saw none other than Leon and his family fighting over who was going to carry what to Leon's dorm.

"You don't even know where the dorm is!" Leon snarled, stamping his foot. "Just freaking wait here until I come back with the stupid packet, and _then_ we can settle in!"

"Hey, Leon," Emil said from behind. In an instant, Leon went from being impatient and cranky to calm and slightly irritated when he heard his friend's voice.

"Emil," he smiled, "did you just come?"

"Yeah. Lukas is meeting up with my parents. We took two cars since, you know, he still has to move into the grad school."

"Uh-huh. So, like, are you going to register right now?"

"Yep."

"Cool," Leon said and pushed his friend back onto the walkway. "Let's go then. I can't stand being around Yao any longer."

When Emil looked back, he noticed Yao was wearing a distant, longing look; it was similar to the look he saw on his own parents when Lukas went off to college for the first time. It was strange knowing Yao would do the same considering Cheng and Mei had also gone thought the same process. Maybe it was because Leon was the last child. Emil was, too, but there was only him and his brother.

"So they all came, huh?" Emil he as he walked alongside his friend.

Leon blew back some of his bangs and tossed his head. "Pfft. Yeah. Yao insisted that he had to come so the room would have good fengshui or some crap like that. Mei just wanted to see the university again. Would have been nice if it was just Cheng and me."

"Oh." Emil chuckled. "I guess it was harder to talk about stuff when it was all four of you, huh?"

"Tell me about it," his friend pouted. "At least you got to go in two cars so you could, like, talk with Lukas by yourself."

"We didn't talk about too many things."

"No?"

"Not really." Emil didn't want to bring up what Lukas said about safe sex. He was afraid Leon would tease him about it for weeks to come before he finally stopped.

Eventually, the signs came to a stop in front of a housing room normally used for indoor recreational events. Today, however, the entire area was cleared and set up with tables, upperclassmen volunteers, and neon-colored packets. There were also some pens and planners handed out for the incoming freshman.

The entire registration process was just as Emil and Leon's family had described: basically, the residential assistants (a.k.a. RA's to everyone on-campus) looked for their names on a list to make sure the students arrived, handed them some contract forms, gave them some complimentary key rings, planners, and other various accessories, and pointed them in the direction of their halls.

Since Lukas and Mei had been fairly recent graduates of Eliatha University's undergraduate school, they had told Emil and Leon which hall was the best to dorm in.

"Oh, oh, live in Topaz!" Mei had told Leon when he had been registering with Emil. "It's the best! It has the best view of the pond, and it's close to the gardens."

"Live in Sapphire," Lukas had said. "It's the closest one to your classes and the library."

"No!" Mathias, Lukas' childhood friend, had shouted. "Live in Ruby! It's the closest to the gym, and plus it's right next to the girls' dorms so you can—_haccck!_" He had then been interrupted by Lukas pulling on his collar.

"Why not Opal?" Cheng had suggested. While he had not been in Eliatha University for some time, the hall he had lived in was still around. "It's in the middle so it's of equal distance to everything. The view is not half-bad, either."

So, Emil and Leon had ultimately decided on Opal Hall. During their orientation, they had stayed in the hall, too, and had agreed that it was the nicest hall out of the others. The best part was that it was also closest to the dining commons so if they ever needed a quick snack, it was barely only a minute away on the ground floor.

"Looks like nothing's changed, huh?" Leon smirked as he and Emil walked up to the hall.

"Yeah." Emil recognized the familiar coating of pearly white against the outline of the building. He could see a few students setting boxes around their windows from the outside, and parents walking in an out of the main doors. There were also volunteers with trolleys and carts going back and forth from the elevators, and there were others responsible for guiding lost students and parents to their correct dorms.

Prior to coming here, Emil and Leon had registered to live on the top floor so no one from above could disturb them. While it might have been a longer walk up and down from the ground floor, they also had the best view of the campus grounds as well as an ideal room for sleeping in.

"Okay, so, like, once we find out where our room is, we can go get the others and our stuff," Leon said. Emil nodded and went with his friend into the hall. Since the elevators were at an all-time usage, they decided to take the stairs. Half way there, Leon decided to make things interesting by holding a race—which he undeniably won due to his greater stamina and endurance.

"No…fair…" Emil panted when he finally reached the top. "You didn't…tell me when we were…starting."

"Ice, you need to start working on your muscles," Leon smirked and jogged down the hall and past the others students. He didn't even bother waiting for Emil to catch up.

When Emil finally met up with his friend, Leon had already gone inside and looked around.

"I'm calling top bunk," he said.

Emil wasn't too happy with his friend's claim. "_I_ want the top bunk." Instead of apologizing or considering his preferences, Leon poked his head out from the top and stuck out his tongue.

"Too bad, so sad," he taunted him. "Maybe if you won the race, you could have called it."

"That's not fair," Emil frowned. "You didn't even tell me when the race was starting, and you know I'm not as fast as you."

"That's why I knew I could get the top bunk."

Emil could only shake his head in disbelief. There was no point in arguing or hanging around so he turned and left to retrieve his family. Leon followed shortly after, but he was too upset with him to speak.

Back when Lukas had been an undergraduate freshman, he had the pleasure of rooming with Mathias. How he had come to agree to it, Emil still couldn't understand, but he remembered Lukas had claimed the top bunk much to Mathias' disappointment.

"With the top bunk, you don't have to worry about the other one looking in on your business," he had explained to his brother. "It also means you don't have to worry about being disturbed by the other person going up and down—you'll be the one doing it. Also, if the support fails, you'll crush the bottom person, not the other way around."

Emil didn't want to think about crushing Leon from above. That was too morbid to think about. The other conveniences, though, sounded like a good thing. During the orientation, Leon had also claimed the top bunk leaving Emil stuck on the bottom. That had only been one night, though. This would be for the entire year.

When the friends returned to the unloading area, everyone had gotten everything out of their vehicles and were waiting on confirmations that they had registered.

"Jialong, what took you guys so long?" Yao snapped. "I'm getting hungry, and you made us wait outside in the sun for too long!"

"Stupid old man," Leon muttered. Emil knew how much he loathed being called his Chinese name. "We were busy trying to see where our dorm was. You guys are all following us, right?"

"We don't want to make two trips," Lukas spoke. "Just hurry up. I have to move in before Mathias gets to the school."

"Right, right." With that, Leon led the way with their families trailing behind them.

When everyone arrived at the entrance of their dorm, Leon politely offered Emil to set his own things down before his family moved in.

"Trust me, it's going to get hectic," he whispered to his friend.

"Emil, which bunk is yours?" Lukas asked as he was carrying his brother's bed sheets.

"Bottom," Leon answered before Emil could reply.

Lukas raised an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted the top bunk, Emil."

"I did," Emil growled, throwing a dark glare at his friend, "before _someone_ decided to claim it during an unfair race."

"Leon, is that true?" Cheng asked, looking at him.

Leon, in turn, averted his gaze away and pursed his lips. "Maybe," he confessed," but I want the top bunk, too."

"Leon." Cheng placed a hand on his shoulder. "You've always said you were the mature one in your friendship, haven't you? If Emil wants to have the top bunk, then you should let him. From what I remember, you also had the top bunk during your orientation."

"Yeah, but this'll be for the entire year…" Leon muttered.

"Leon…"

Emil saw the look in Cheng's eyes. He wasn't able to give it a name, but whenever he used that look, Leon always ended up giving in regardless of the situation.

"Fine," he sighed. "Emil gets top bunk."

Lukas blinked. "Very well," he said and tossed the bed sheets over the rail. "Emil, hand me your puffin."

Emil flinched. "You—! Lukas, you weren't supposed to tell anyone I brought it!"

"Ah, you told Lukas, not your dear big brother," he teased.

"Stupid!" Emil growled.

"Boys, knock it off," their father scolded them. "Not in front of Leon's family."

Both of them shut their mouths and silently continue unloading with Leon's family watching and waiting in amusement. After some time, they had moved all of their things inside the room and stepped out.

"Have fun and take care, Emil," his mother gently smiled.

"Study hard," his father told him.

"I will," Emil grumbled as his brother patted his head.

"If you need anything, call me," he said. "You remember how to get to the grad school, right?"

"Yes," Emil said through his teeth, "now go. I thought you wanted to get there before Mathias moved in."

As his family left, Emil heard his father saying, "I don't understand why you don't get along with that Køhler kid still. He's a nice guy."

Then, it was Leon's turn. Like a silent gun going off, everyone suddenly burst into the dorm and threw boxes after boxes on top of each other. Yao started unpacking Leon's study lamp and other assorted school supplies and stuffed them into his desk. Mei was busy setting Leon's bed making sure all of the corners were nicely tucked and secure. Cheng was unpacking some of Leon's posters that he had brought from home, asking where he wanted certain ones.

Within a matter of minutes, all of Leon's things were unpacked and organized, all of the boxes emptied and stacked.

"Thanks, guys, I guess," Leon said and shooed Yao out of the room.

"You're really not going to take us to the E.C.?" Yao asked.

"_D.C._," Leon sighed, "and no, I don't want you here. Mei and Cheng are cool, but you mess with my aura."

"What aura?" Yao huffed. "I made sure your room has proper fengshui! The least you can do is be thankful! Young people nowadays!"

"Now, now, I think we should give the boys some space," Cheng quickly suggested and urged Yao out of the dorm. "We don't have to use Leon's meal tickets if you'd like. We can always pay ourselves."

Yao did not sound too happy about paying for his own meal—especially since Leon had plenty of meals left to go. Nevertheless, his family bid him farewell and left, too, just like Emil's family.

"Geez," Leon sighed when they were finally out of sight. "Looks like we can't eat just yet."

"Guess not," Emil chuckled and threw himself on his unmade bed. He wished his brother and parents were as lively as Leon's family sometimes. As he stared at the wall opposite of him, he saw Leon's kung-fu movie posters practically painting the walls into a different color. All Emil had were some banners of Eliatha University's mascot: a black dragon. If it wasn't because the university was known for its academics, it was known for its standout mascot and design.

"Hey, Emil," his friend suddenly spoke up from the bottom bunk.

"Yeah?"

"We're in college now."

**This story is already on my deviantART of the same username, but I've decided to put this here for my own amusement. I will attempted to upload the chapters steadily over half a week each time.**


	2. Chapter 2

Barely three hours into settling down, Emil and Leon received a knock on their front door.

"Yo, like, open up, dudes!" someone with a particularly sassy voice called from the other side. As the two roommates exchanged dubious looks, they proceeded to peep through the door viewer.

Since he was slightly quicker to judge, Leon went first and stared at the person on the other side. Emil watched his friend as he made a face and tilted his head towards the door viewer, urging him to take a look.

When Emil looked through, he was equally as confused: the person on the other side was a blonde, green-eyed eccentric wearing a hot pink shirt complete with a plaid skirt. Something was a little off, though, Emil thought. Maybe it was the fact that the person's chest was unusually flat for such a getup, or maybe it was because there was a slight dip in the speaker's voice. Whatever it was, Leon and Emil weren't sure if the person outside was a boy or a girl.

"Hey, like, open up, you two!" the person spoke again. "I know you're inside! We're having a floor meeting in, like, five minutes so be there or be square!"

"Look who's talking," Leon muttered, rolling his eyes with a mocking smirk.

"Shut up," Emil hissed and pushed him out of the way to open the door. It's a good thing he did, too, because it looked like the blonde was about to leave.

"So you _were_ inside!" the person exclaimed. Before either roommate could say anything, they were given a full inspection of the eccentric clad-in-pink individual as he walked circles around them. The way in which he did it was no different than a lioness encircling her prey.

"Like, you two've got good chemistry." Then, the person stuck out both hands in a crisscross pattern for the boys to shake. "So, like, I'm Feliks. Feliks Łukasiewicz." Neither Leon nor Emil dared to address this person by his surname.

"Anyway," Feliks continued, "I'm your R.A. this year so get used to seeing me and lots of pink, okay?"

"Uh…" Emil was at a loss for words.

"So you're a dude?" Leon straight-up asked.

"Leon!"

"I get that a lot," the resident assistant scoffed. "But you really should check it before you wreck it."

"What…?" Emil whispered. Suddenly he wasn't sure he was too happy about living on the fifth floor anymore.

Then, Feliks pointed a finger (complete with neon pink nail polish on his nail) at the two boys. "But don't forget what I said. Meeting in five."

"Got it," Leon smirked, giving his friend a light nudge.

"What?" Emil asked when their R.A. was out of sight knocking on other doors.

"Think he's gay?"

Emil only shrugged. "How should I know? Does it matter?"

"I'll bet he's friends with a lot of girls," Leon smirked. "If we get tight with him, we can get introduced to all sorts of ladies."

"Leon, we're here for an education, not to goof off and flirt," Emil sneered. His friend responded by locking him in a chokehold and messing up his silvery hair.

"Aw, you're starting to sound like your brother," he smirked. "Don't tell me I have to start acting like Mathias then."

"That doesn't make sense!" the helpless Emil snarled as he struggled to loosen his aggressor's grip. "Besides, acting like Mathias never solves anything!"

"Whatever it did, it got him into law school," Leon pointed out.

"That's only because his uncle is the dean of the health and social sciences department!"

"Oh yeah." Then, Leon released his friend from under his arm and straightened him out. "So, like, are we going to the meeting?"

Emil furrowed his eyebrows. "He never told us where to go, did he?"

"It's probably going to be, like, in the lounge area or something."

"Makes sense," Emil agreed and followed him to the open area by the elevators.

"Okay, so, like, is everyone here?" Feliks asked as the students gathered around him in a clustered donut shape. "Whatever. Snooze, you lose. Anyways, there's going to be a party for the freshmeats only because you're cool like that. By the Gold Hall. Be there. Lots of fun. Oh, yeah, and it's from nine to midnight. Moving on.

"If you ever need to talk to someone or just need a shoulder to cry on, I'm _not_ your guy—just kidding. I'd totally be there for you, freshmeats."

The little joke earned the resident assistant some chuckles among the crowd. Leon whispered into Emil's ear asking him if they wanted to go grab something at the dining commons before heading over to the party.

"Oh!" Feliks suddenly cried before Emil could give him his answer. "I almost forgot! You all, like, have to introduce yourselves. I don't know. Just go in a circle or a zigzag or something. I'll start first—and just so you know, I know there's thirty two of you in my wing so I'll be counting to make sure no one was skipped. Okay? Okay.

"So, like, I'm Feliks Łukasiewicz. I'm a junior, but I should be the only junior besides the other R.A. on this floor. I'm a fashion design major. Pretty obvious, don't you think?"

"Like, totally," Leon whispered with a sassy voice. Emil elbowed him.

After Feliks made his introduction, all of the residents went around telling everyone their full names and majors. Once all thirty two of them finished introducing his or herself, Feliks clapped his hands together and brought the floor meeting to a conclusion.

"Alright, that settles it!" he beamed. "Now you're all free to run along! Don't forget about the party at Gold! I'll be there! Ooh, but if you're free, I'm going to eat dinner so you're welcome to tag along!"

Emil was about to retreat back into his room so he could clean up the rest of his boxes when Leon snagged him by his shirt.

"Hey, where do you think you're going, Ice?" he asked. "Feliks is going down to eat. Come on. I'm starving."

"But I was going to…" Emil's voice trailed off. "Fine. I'm coming."

As the boys followed behind Feliks, they noticed the flashy pink-stylized R.A. had already attracted a small group of girls who were asking him about what sorts of clothes he designed.

"See, what'd I tell ya?" Leon chuckled. "He's a chick-magnet just like I thought he'd be."

"Please don't invite any of them over," Emil groaned. "I want to get a good night's sleep, thank you very much."

"Relax, I won't," Leon laughed. "Though I kind of want to check out Topaz Hall later—you know—since it's separate gender and all."

It was true. While Opal Hall was a co-educational dorm, Topaz and Ruby Halls were separated by gender. Lukas had been dragged over to Ruby Hall several times with Mathias, and he said the experience had been unbearable. According to him, since there was no sign of a womanly figure to be found in the dorms, the bathrooms were said to be a mess, and there was always a peculiar odor in the air. It didn't help that just about every dorm blasted music and echoed with screams and manly yelling every three seconds.

Topaz Hall, on the other hand, was said to be rather mellow—at least when it came to the girls' dorms. Mei, Leon's cousin, had lived there when she had been a freshman. She had told him that the rooms were generally quiet, and the ladies weren't afraid to travel to one another's dorms to borrow something or just to make small talk. It hadn't been the most efficient studying environment, but it was certainly more livable than Ruby Hall.

There was a total of four dining commons located in Eliatha University. The main dining commons and the largest of them all was the Bonnefoy Dining Commons named after the generous French donors who provided the funds for construction and constant renovations time and time again. It was there that most students would go to eat and study for long periods of time—if they could handle the smells and noise.

Second in line of biggest dining commons was Hatches, an odd cross between a café, sandwich deli, and bakery. It was located in the center of the classroom buildings where students with breaks in between classes could stop by for a quick snack.

Then there was Pea Pots, an eatery that was fashioned more like a grocery store than an actual place to eat. Most students referred to the place as the "hippies' D.C." since it offered a variety of organic foods and fresh produce from the farmlands in the countryside.

Lastly, there was the Kirkland Kart. Honestly, no one knew why it existed. If there was ever to be a stain on the polished gem that was Eliatha University, the Kirkland Kart was it. It couldn't even be called an eatery let alone a real dining common. It was basically a cart that whimsically travelled around campus grounds for anyone (un)fortunate to be hungry enough to come across it. Contrary to its name, the Kirkland Kart didn't serve British food entirely; there were all sorts of strange soups and boxed salads to be offered, and anyone brave enough could fancy some of the Kirkland's one-of-a-kind black-bean midnight tea.

The tea was supposed to be a brew of coffee and tea leaves mixed in one for an increased caffeine intake, but that was only if one managed to finish the entire thing. Naturally, it had been known that whoever could finish the black-bean midnight tea grande had a true iron-shell stomach. News of anyone finishing the concoction in a single sitting spread like wildfire across the campus, and in time, it was known that whoever managed to finish it had their name etched into the Kirkland Kart's blackboard for the rest of the year. Just last year, only one student by the name of Alfred F. Jones had managed to finish it. Only one.

But, for now, Leon and Emil wouldn't have to worry about encountering the mysterious traveling Kirkland Kart because it always closed down at sunset, and the sun had long since gone down from the sky. When the students approached the Bonnefoy Dining Commons, the entire building was glowing with warm electric lights and equally warm colors from the inside.

Emil recalled Mathias praising the interior design of the school's dining commons—something that was rare to hear. He may have claimed he could do a better job, but for a Frenchman's taste, the décor was suitably appropriate.

"Okay, ladies," Feliks said as he turned around. "I know you've all probably been here during orientation, but I'm going to welcome you to the B.D.C., anyway! Welcome!"

Leon and Emil casually blended into the background as their floor mates cheered and clapped at their resident assistant's enthusiasm. After giving his residents a brief rundown and his own recommendations, Feliks went off and let everyone pick out their own dishes.

The main dining commons was set up in such a way that it wasn't like a cafeteria but a buffet, as one would call it. So as long as that particular item was still available, students could grab whatever they wanted as long as they didn't leave the premises. An extra charge was administered for students taking food out of the dining commons, but for the most part, there were plenty of other opportunities to eat on the go.

"Remember," Leon said as they grabbed their plates, "don't get the Asian stuff."

Emil grimaced and silently nodded recalling their incoming orientation. When he and Leon had eaten together at the dining commons for the first time, Leon had made it a personal goal to sample everything the university had to offer on that day. He had heard the warnings from Mei and Cheng about the oriental section not being the best place to eat from, but nevertheless, he had tried it anyway. The evening had not ended well.

"Like, now that I think about it, it's just a given," Leon said as he helped himself to some pasta. "No matter what, you're never going to eat Asian food as good as mine, yeah?"

Emil had to agree there. After being invited to his friend's house on several occasions for dinner, he couldn't bring himself to image eating out at a restaurant ever again. None of them could compare to Leon's family's cooking.

After getting their food, the two found Feliks and the rest of their floor mates chatting about…whatever it was girls and a quirky resident assistant could chat about. When they sat down, they noticed there was someone new joining them at the table.

"Hey, fellas!" Feliks greeted them as they took their seats next to the new person. Unlike Feliks who was as colorful as Leon and Emil had seen so far in Eliatha University, this person was rather plain. Aside his bashful appearance, he had plain brown hair that went to his shoulders complete with plain green eyes. He never bothered to speak out of turn when Feliks straight up slapped his back and ordered him to scoot over for the boys.

"Oh, like, this guy here is Toris," he said, his mouth filled with what appeared to be brownies and ice cream. Now that Leon and Emil were next to them, it looked the only thing he was eating was dessert. "Toris is the other R.A. on our floor. His room is right next to mine so if I'm not around, just go to him if you need something."

"Nice to meet you guys," he softly smiled. "So what're your names?"

"Emil," Emil flatly said.

"Leon Wang," Leon replied. "So did you two, like, know each other before becoming R.A.s? Looks like you two have a little history."

"Oh, that," Toris chuckled. "We went to high school together."

"Same here," Leon said pointing to his friend. "Which high school?"

"Academy W. It's sort of a strange private school."

"No way, like, that's where Emil and I went."

"Really?" Emil noticed Toris was starting to loosen up. Leave it to Leon to know how to make small talk with someone. "I don't think I ever saw you two."

"Eh, we hung out in weird areas," Leon smirked earning some "Oohs," from the girls. While Leon continued to talk to the resident assistant, Emil received some questions from the unoccupied ladies.

"So Emil, how long have you and Leon known each other?" one of them asked.

"Since high school," he said between bites. He attempted to eat as often but as carefully as possible hoping they would ignore him and lean towards Leon some more.

"Aw, so you guys decided to room together?" another giggled. "How sweet."

Why was it sweet? Emil wondered. It wasn't like he and Leon were a couple. They just happened to be two friends who got into the same school. He thought that sort of occurrence was just normal. Was it the aura they gave off, perhaps?

"Emil, is that your natural hair color?" someone else asked.

Emil nodded this time since he thought it would be rude if he answered with his mouth full. He got that question a lot, anyway.

"And your eyes are also natural."

Emil nodded again.

"What about Leon's?"

Emil nodded once more. While he thought himself to be the more exotic of the two, it was true that Leon's golden shade of amber eyes didn't fail to capture the interest of someone every now and then. Leon, however, didn't mind the attention.

"Hey, so Emil, what's your major?"

"Marine biology," he said. No interesting reactions there. He suspected if he told them he was going into pre-med like his brother had, he might have sparked their interest.

"Oh. That's cool. What about Leon?"

"Business management."

"That makes sense," one of them giggled. "He plays the part."

Emil shrugged in a sort of agreement. Since his standoffishness had earned him low marks, the girls eventually wavered towards Leon—him being the more sociable of the two, apparently.

When dinner was finished, Feliks took off with the rest of the girls to "dress for success," as he had put it. Leon and Emil only rolled their eyes and returned to the security of their dorms.

"That Feliks guy's kind of funky, huh?" Leon coomented as he dug through his box of accessories.

"In what way?" Emil responded considering there were several angles Feliks was "funky."

"Like, he's a little outdated with his lingo, but he keeps it fresh _because_ it's outdated."

"That kind of stuff never made sense to me," Emil shrugged.

"You should be more outgoing, Ice. You left me trying to juggle all of them at once."

"They weren't interesting, anyway." Emil paused to tie his shoes. "They're all weird majors. No wonder they got in this school."

"_Psh_," Leon scoffed. "Since when is marine biology a normal major? I'd be surprised if you found more than twenty freshman on campus majoring in that."

"I could have gone into medicine, too, you know," Emil frowned. "I just thought it'd be awkward since Lukas is doing the same thing. He'd probably guide me through everything in baby steps like high school."

"Makes sense, I suppose." While Mei and Cheng had gone to Eliatha University, too, they had majored in completely different things: Mei had majored in nutritional sciences while Cheng had double-majored in applied mathematics with an emphasis in probability and statistics as well as philosophy.

"Anyway," Leon sighed, "are you ready, yet? It's almost ten."

"_What?_" Emil cried in shock. "Already? But the party started at nine! We're going to be an hour late!"

"Ice, Ice, Ice," his friend chuckled. "Don't you know the rules to attendance? Always show up late. That's when things really start getting wild."

"How?"

"Because if you show up too early, chances are, nothing's really getting started, and before you know it, you'll be stuck with the self-conscious losers for the rest of the party since, you know, they get familiar with you. Arrive too late, and all the cool guys get taken. Geez, and I thought you and Mathias were tight."

Emil furrowed his eyebrows. "Not really. He was just someone who was there, and he was someone who always brought the party with him late or not—but he was always on time, I think."

"I'm not an idiot loud-mouth like Mathias, but I _really_ hope you don't stay a wallflower like your brother for the rest of college, Ice."

"I won't be a wallflower because I'm going to be sticking with you, right?" Emil asked just to make sure Leon wasn't going to ditch him halfway into the night.

"Eh…" Leon was hesitating. That wasn't a good sign. "Yeah. Uh-huh. Just…make sure you don't do or say anything stupid while we're there, okay?"

"When do I ever?"

"No, I wasn't saying you do. I just want to make sure I establish myself. Eliatha University is full of ambitious students—people with drive. If I get in with the right people, I can carry those connections all the way through graduation. You can make sure you don't get in the way, can't you?"

"I guess," Emil sighed. "Alright, then. I'm ready."

"Great," Leon smirked and wrapped his arm around him. "Let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

If Emil had been familiar with old-school street lingo, he might have said something like, "This party is pumpin'."

...Something like that.

On the contrary, Emil Steilsson was no old-school street boy, nor was he extroverted enough to say something so colloquial. Instead, right after arriving at the party, he immediately looked for a secluded area to sit down at and hide himself away. Forget about Leon and his social connections charm. He would be just fine on his own. He figured his friend at better things to do than to get weighed down by an awkward introvert.

It wasn't like there was any reason to complain. Parties, he suspected, were just like this: people talking and dancing, socialization going on around, idiots doing stupid stuff—a typical college atmosphere. No wonder why Lukas had hated it.

But the music was decent and new, the food and drinks were served at a comfortable rate, and the freshmeat was all gathered at the same location. What could go wrong?

"Hey, you!" someone said. Emil paid no attention. Whoever was speaking had to have been talking to someone else. Another girl, perhaps. The one speaking was a girl, no doubt. Emil didn't know any girls so he ignored her.

"You with the white hair!"

Now that was funny. Emil didn't know anyone else with white hair except for some instructor's wildly artistic nephew. Was someone talking to him, or was there someone else with white hair in the area?

Curiosity got the better of him, and Emil looked up.

"Yeah, you!" someone giggled. She was a regular dame, from the looks of it: pigtails, bright smile, friendly eyes... The only thing off about her was her almost tropical appearance. Her dress was a flashy aquamarine blue (Emil recalled the color from a crayon name) and her skin was as dark as his skin was pale. But forget about her appearance; she was making eye contact with him. This was unfamiliar. He only received eye contact when someone was ready to call him out or make fun of him—like a certain Cantonese friend of his.

"Are you talking to me?" he asked considering there was no one else who fit her description.

"Of course, silly!" she laughed. "Who else has white hair around here? Is it natural?"

"Yeah." Emil shifted awkwardly into the wall. He didn't enjoy direct confrontations with people. That was Leon's job. Speaking of which, where in Eliatha was he?

"That's so cool," the girl breathed. "I don't think I've ever heard of someone having white hair as their natural color—except for that one professor's brother…"

"Oh." He didn't bother telling her there was someone else he knew with white hair, too, though he was wondering who this professor's brother was. Obviously the music instructor's nephew he knew about was way too young to be a professor—art prodigy or not.

"So where are you from?" the girl asked.

"Crodinia*," he replied. He was hoping this person was getting the hint that he didn't want to be talked to. He thought the short-worded answers should have hit home by now.

But, she continued to talk. "I'm actually studying abroad here," she said.

Emil suspected he was supposed to ask her what country she was from, but he simply replied with another "Oh."

"Seychelles," she specified. "You know where that is?"

"No." It was the truth.

She laughed. "That's okay. Most people don't know. It's like this little island off of Africa. Sometimes they forget to put us on the map. It's kind of sad."

"I can get that." Having been from an Icelandic background, Emil's country of origin was sometimes forgotten on the map of Europe. Iceland was an island, too. He thought that if he mentioned these facts, he might have been able to strike up a conversation with her.

But, instead, he fumbled out with the boring, typical question of "So what's your name?"

"I'm Michelle," the girl smiled, sticking out her hand. Strange of her to be doing something usually reserved for men, but Emil shook her hand, anyway.

"Emil," he said. When he took his hand away, he realized how frustratingly hot and sweaty it was. He hoped she hadn't been too grossed out by his nervous wreck of a handshake.

_What would Leon do?_ he wondered. He predicted his friend would be the type to hit it off with a joke, but Emil was anything but a walking joke book.

"Umm…" Pushing those thoughts away, instead Emil sputtered out yet another dull question. "So what's your major?"

"Marine biology," Michelle said. "And you?"

"Same, actually." Honestly, he was surprised he would meet any freshmen with the same major as him—and a girl at that.

"Ooh, that's wonderful!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "So which hall do you live in? Er, you live on-campus, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Opal Hall."

"Oh." Her expression fell a little. "I live in Topaz."

"My friend's cousin lived there," Emil said referring to Mei. "She said the girls' dorms are really nice."

"They are," she agreed. "Everyone's really friendly. They're helping me with my English."

"That's…nice." Honestly he had no idea what to say. When she mentioned that, however, he noticed she was speaking with a slight accent. What was it? British? French? Somewhere in between? He couldn't put his finger on it.

"Back at Seychelles, we would speak with French and English," Michelle explained. Ah. So he was right in a sense. "It's really different from what the other countries in Africa speak, but we manage somehow."

"You sound fine to me," Emil said, hoping he didn't sound too sappy when he told her that.

"Oh…Th-Thank you." Was that a blush he saw? He was wondering if he made her blush. Just thinking about it made him want to blush, too. He felt like an idiot.

"Emil!"

"Thank the gods…" Emil muttered under his breath. It was Leon here to save the awkward train wreck of a conversation.

"I was looking all over for you," he said as he came over with what appeared to be a plastic cup of fizzy punch. "Hey, so, like, I met some people who were going to show me around Ruby Hall after talking with some other people. I'm just letting you know if you wanna head on back to the dorms or something—so you don't go wondering where I went." He then stopped to look over at Emil's new acquaintance. "Oh, hey you hooked up with my little albino roommate. Is he being awkward like he usually is?"

"Shut up, Leon," Emil hissed. Fortunately Michelle seemed unfazed by any of this.

"I'm Leon, Emil's roommate," he introduced himself. "You?"

"Michelle," she timidly said.

"Cool. So where're you from?"

"Seychelles," she replied. "You've probably never heard of it."

"Oh, yeah, I know that place," Leon grinned. "It's that one little island off of Africa, right?"

"Yes! But how would you…?"

"My friend, here, is in a same situation." To emphasis his point, Leon patted Emil's shoulder. Emil replied by shrugging him off. "See, he's Icelandic. Over in Europe, they sometimes forget to put Iceland on the map. I think I heard something about how Africa does the same in Seychelles, am I right?"

"Uh-huh," Michelle nodded. Terrific. Leon was able to make the connection that Emil failed at.

Then, Leon smiled. "I'm Cantonese—from Hong Kong to be exact. It's not, like, a place people would forget about since we were part of Britain and all, but it's an island like Iceland and Seychelles. Pretty cool, huh? We're from different parts of the world, too."

"That _is_ pretty cool," Michelle agreed. Emil simply grunted. By now, he was sure he had dissolved into the background, but, as his odd luck would have it, his friend trailed away and left them to each other again.

"You two seem to hit it off pretty well," he said. "I'll just leave you guys to do your thing, then. Emil, I'll just meet you back at the dorm, okay?"

"Sure," he replied. "Bye."

"See ya," his friend waved and vanished into the freshmeat sea.

When he didn't see him anymore, Emil could only groan and drown in his misfortunes. Without his friend around, there was definitely no point in staying at the party regardless of what other people he might have met. He thought it would be best to call off his conversation with Michelle; if she was the same major as him, he figured they would be seeing each other in their classes eventually.

"Um, listen," he began, "I think I'm going to head on back to my dorm. It's late, and I only came here because my roommate just now dragged me over."

"Oh," Michelle blinked. "Sure. It was nice meeting you. Hey, um, one last thing: what classes are you taking this term?"

Emil paused to run over his schedule. "Bio, general chem, and beginner culinary class. I know the last one's kind of out there."

"I'm taking biology and culinary, too!" she beamed. "Maybe we'll see each other in our classes?"

"Maybe." He really didn't know if he would be able to help her in culinary class if not biology. The only reason he was taking it was to get his electives out of the way—that and to try surpassing Leon in cooking. He hated it when Leon bragged about his family's cooking skills.

"I'll see you when classes start, then," Michelle smiled.

Emil smiled back. "Yeah. See you there perhaps. Night."

"Good night," she responded back.

Great. He was out of there. The atmosphere was positively suffocating. He hated the crowds and the noise. How Leon had been able to put up with it in Hong Kong, he would never know. When he was finally away from Gold Hall's quad, he headed straight back to Opal Hall when he heard his phone vibrate.

"Big Brother," his contact read. Emil frowned every time he saw that title. Since his parents had refused to buy him anything but a disposable phone (due to his lack of social interactions), Lukas had been kind enough to buy him a smartphone for his birthday—on the condition that he would list his phone number under "Big Brother."

From an objective point of view, having a smartphone was better than refusing to call Lukas "Big Brother," but he could have done without that.

Groaning, he answered the phone. "Hello?"

"I don't hear any background noise," his brother's emotionless voice said. "So you're not at the party."

Emil frowned. "I was."

"But you left early," his brother accurately concluded. "I'd say you were there for barely an hour."

He was right on that assumption. To save himself the trouble of denying it, Emil told the truth. "I was there for about forty minutes. It was boring."

"Even with that Asian kid?"

"His name is Leon," Emil reminded him with a sour look on his face.

"Was he your only friend there?"

"He left me." He immediately regretted saying that. Knowing how protective Lukas could get, he was really getting out of line.

Lukas clicked his tongue. "He did, did he? You know, I can get Mathias' uncle to throw you a special recommendation for a single room. You don't have to live with that guy if you don't want to."

"_Leon_," Emil sighed. "And, no, I don't want to live in a single. It's too expensive. You lived with Mathias, too—for a time."

"Mathias and I go farther back than you and Leon." At least Lukas was using his friend's name now. "You've only known Leon for a little over two years. How long do you think it's going to be before he steals something or starts selling drugs to the students?"

"Leon's not that type of person, Lukas."

A pause. "I thought I heard some static in the phone," his older brother teased.

Emil rolled his eyes. "Leon's a good person, _Brother_."

"That's better. I suppose if you're happy, it's fine. Just call me if something goes wrong, alright?"

"Yes," he grunted. He was almost to his hall. He thought it would be better to take the stairs since he figured it would be the only exercise he would get all year. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Oh, yes. Have you met anyone else—besides your R.A., I mean?"

"Um….There was this girl. Michelle, I think her name was. She's a marine biology major, too."

"A girl, huh?" Through the unusual silence, Emil thought he heard his brother say something like, "Beats having a brother-in-law."

"Leon. And I. Are not. A thing."

"Sure you aren't. But if this Michelle person is smart, be her friend. It's nice to have smart friends."

"You're one to talk," Emil frowned. "You didn't have any friends besides Mathias."

"I was the smartest one in the undergraduate program. Of course I wouldn't have any use for friends."

"So you're doubting my abilities?"

"No. I thought it would be nice to have a change of pace for once. You're in college now, little brother. Try something different for a change. If not for you, do it for me."

Where was this coming from? Since being born, Emil always knew Lukas to be someone who cared deeply for him no matter what his views of the world were. He should have understood that his dear little brother didn't want to interact with the world if he could. So why was he encouraging socialization if he didn't do it, himself?

_Maybe he wants me to do the things he couldn't do?_ he thought.

"Uh…Lu—Brother, I'm at my dorm now," he said wanting to cut the phone call short. "I think I'm going to take a shower. I'll talk to you later."

"What time do your classes end on Thursday?" his brother suddenly asked.

"Why?"

"So I can call and ask you about them."

Emil sighed again. "Four. I only have culinary on Thursday."

"Alright. Tell me how that goes, then."

"Uh-huh."

"Goodnight, little brother."

"Goodnight…" Emil cringed. "…Big Brother."

Leon didn't come back for another three hours. In the time he had been gone, Emil had already finished getting ready for bed, and was just about to fall asleep when he heard a small group of voices drifted into his dorm.

"Aw, sweet, so this is your room? It's way better than the ones at Gold." Oh. So these were different new "friends" of Leon's then, if they weren't from Ruby Hall.

"Cool yeah?" Emil heard Leon say. "Oh, wait. Quiet. I think my roommate's sleeping."

Part of Emil wanted to sit there and ignore the noise. Another part of him wanted to lean over and see what kind of people Leon had invited over from Ruby Hall. If he didn't see them right now, he probably wouldn't see them again.

"It's alright," he grumbled as he leaned over the railing on his bunk. "I'm awake."

"Interesting," one of them with wavy golden-brown hair commented. "He looks rather exotic. How'd you end up with someone like him, Leon?"

"High school," Leon shortly answered. "If you didn't see it from the signs on our doors, his name's Emil. Emil, this is Charles** and Yong Soo."

The names and appearances were incredibly contrasting. Emil had to suspect the one with wavy hair was Charles and the tall Asian-looking one next to him was Yong Soo.

"Nice to meet you," he said. The others nodded in return.

"Charles is an economics major," Leon said. "Yong Soo's a computer science major."

"Cool," was all Emil could think of to say.

The one named Charles spoke. "Listen, Leon, I hate to be rude, but I think it's time for Yong Soo and I to take our leave. It's rather late, and I need my full night's rest for tonight." Emil had to make a face at the way he talked. He sounded like some overly pompous asshole. How someone as rebellious as Leon was able to put up with him for even more than ten minutes was a mystery.

"That's fine," Leon replied. "I'll see you around, then, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Of course."

A few short goodbyes later, the room was left with its original occupants: Leon and Emil.

Leon didn't even bother to take off his shoes as he flopped onto his bed. "Ah, geez, I'm beat. So how was your night with Michelle, Emil?"

"I sort of said goodbye to her after you left," he responded after a yawn. "There wasn't much to talk about."

His friend scoffed. "Nothing to talk about? Like, you guys are the same major. You should have asked her about why she wanted to go into marine biology or something. You know, listen to what she has to say. Girls like it when you ask them things. Anyone does. People like to talk about themselves."

"I'm not like you," Emil stubbornly grunted.

"You need to grow up." Leon took a moment to stretch. "Hey, how about tomorrow we check out the gym? We don't have any classes until next week anyway."

"Don't you have something to do with your friends?"

"Nah, they're just people I'll be able to say hi to when I walk around—the ones at Ruby, anyway. They're not as resourceful as me. Charles and Yong Soo—those two that just left—they're alright."

"Oh." Emil took this opportunity to turn around and huddle up with his stuffed puffin plushie. He was glad Lukas reminded him to bring it, but Leon didn't have to know about it.

"Uh," Leon spoke up again, "so, like, are we going to the gym tomorrow?"

"I don't know. What time?"

"How 'bout seven?"

"Seven's early," Emil groaned.

"Come on. It's going to be good. You'll feel better after going, trust me."

Finally, he gave in. "Fine, I'll go. But only if you promise not to make fun of me."

"No promises there," his friend chuckled. "Even if I'm just going to give you tips, you might take them as insults."

Emil, his eyes already shut, could only purse his lips. "Just don't do anything to embarrass me."

"Sure, sure," Leon yawned. "What a day. I'm going to sleep, okay? …Emil?"

His friend didn't respond. Curious, Leon carefully climbed up to his bed and saw that he had fallen asleep holding his stuffed puffin.

"Huh," he smirked. "Out like a light. Night, Emil." With that, he climbed back down, changed out of his clothes, set his phone alarm to six, and fell asleep right away.

***A made-up kingdom of mine from another story**

**Hutt River seems acts like a Charles. Don't sue me. .


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing Emil woke up to on his first official morning of college was a cold wet towel smacking his face.

"_Blargh—!_" he gasped as the freezing water dripped onto his pillow and soaked him through and through. "Leon, what the hell!"

"Rise and shine, snowflake," he heard his less-than considerate roommate snicker as he caught the towel before it hit him back.

"That's not cool!" Emil exploded. "I'd never do something like that to you!"

"Yeah, but you slept past the alarm," Leon said. When Emil looked closer, he noticed Leon was already dressed in basketball shorts, running shoes, and an Eliatha University sweatshirt. The sweatshirt was actually a hand-me-down from Cheng; it was a little big, but since he always took care of his belongings, Leon didn't mind saving a few hetas by taking it with him to school. The design hadn't changed on the new sweatshirts, either.

"C'mon, Emil. Get dressed so the machines don't get taken up. Cheng and Mei told me it can get awkward waiting around for a machine to be available."

Emil wasn't able to relate since Lukas never bothered going to the gym as an undergraduate. Much like his brother, Emil was gifted with high metabolism, but as a result, it gave him the poor excuse that he didn't need to work out in order to look lean. Leon was a different case, but at least he practiced martial arts and worked out back in high school—apparently being a fanatic of all those Hong Kong action movies paid off in the long run.

"What time is it?" Emil groaned.

"Six thirty," Leon said. "I already took a shower and everything. You slept like a log while I was getting ready."

Emil glowered at his friend. "I was exhausted. Transitioning from high school to college and going to a party will do that."

"I did the same," Leon reminded him.

"Yeah, but you're used to this lifestyle by now, aren't you? You moved from Hong Kong barely two years ago.

Leon shrugged. "Maybe that's it. But anyway, hurry up and get dressed, wouldja? I don't wanna have to come up there and drag you down myself."

"I'm getting ready," Emil sighed and flung over his covers. He thought of making his bed before leaving, but since Leon was waiting and he had the top bunk, anyway, he figured it wouldn't matter if he left it undone for one day.

Unlike Leon, Emil hadn't planned on actually going to the gym so the only thing he could manage was a large t-shirt with a loaned pair of shorts from Leon. Aside, his shoes, socks, and his undergarments, everything was borrowed from his friend. Most embarrassingly of all, the t-shirt Emil was forced to wear was something he couldn't be proud of.

"Go to hell," Leon laughed. "Now _that's_ funny."

Emil groaned. According to Leon, his distant relative from Thailand gave him the shirt Emil was wearing. It consisted of a cheap white fabric with blunt stars, glittering rainbows, and pink ponies that spat fire out of their mouths. The icing on this trainwreck of a shirt was the three words at the bottom of the design labeled in brilliant rainbow font: "GO TO HELL."

"This is the stupidest thing ever…" Emil looked over at his friend who appeared to be more well-dressed than him. "You didn't have any other shirts, Leon?"

"None that I'd let you work out in," he replied. "I plan to wear the rest for, you know, college stuff, not exercising in. I thought you'd bring some gym clothes, but I guess not, huh?"

"Oh, you think?" Emil sarcastically sneered.

"Hey, don't sweat it—no pun intended," his friend laughed. "If there's anything people are going to remember you by besides your white hair, it's going to be that shirt. I was going to wear it around during parties or something, but I think it looks better on you. Wanna have it?"

"No, thanks," Emil declined. "I think I'm better off with the wardrobe I have now."

Getting back to the main subject, since Lukas had never gone to the gym, he hadn't bothered showing his little brother where it was located. Apparently it was close to Ruby Hall according to Mathias, but Emil was unsure of its whereabouts, too. So, instead he was stuck following Leon around.

On their way to the gym, Leon got a phone call.

_This early in the morning?_ Emil thought. He figured Lukas was still sleeping—probably due to excessive pre-emptive studying.

"Yeah?" Leon spoke into his phone. "Hey, Cheng. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, Emil and I are going to the gym right now. Don't worry, I promise I'll take care of him. I miss you, too. I—What? Yao and Mei are listening?" Leon hung his head. "Shhhit...Fine. Put them on."

"Leeeoon!"

Emil winced. He could hear Mei's energetic voice even without the speakerphone on Leon's end.

"How's everything going?" she asked. "Did you meet anyone? Is your R.A. cool?"

"Fine, yes, and sort of," Leon answered the questions in order. "Emil and I are already settled in, and I met some people from Ruby and Gold Halls. They're pretty cool. And I think my R.A.'s gay. I think. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me, either way."

Mei's voice must've died down because Emil couldn't hear anything anymore—that was, until he heard Yao's voice speaking through the phone.

"Jialong, are you getting enough to eat?" he asked. "Are you making sure the colors in your house are coordinated?"

"I'm eating enough, Yao," Leon frowned, "and yes, I made sure the stupid plaque is facing the right way."

"Make sure you buy a plant, okay?" Yao instructed. "I want you to send me a picture of your plant by tonight, got it? Since classes haven't started, you still have time to take the bus to go out of town. Whatever you do, don't get—"

"A bonsai," Leon sighed. "I know. You've told me a thousand times. I'll send you the picture then." He paused to point Emil in the left direction at the fork of the walkway. From there, Emil could see something that vaguely looked like a gym at the end of the road next to a red-bricked building; it must've been Ruby Hall, he assumed.

"Listen, we're almost at the gym. I'll talk to you guys later, okay? Bye, Cheng. Bye, Mei."

"What about me?!" Emil could hear his friend's guardian shout.

"Yeah, yeah, you, too, gramps," Leon groaned and hung up before he had to submit himself to anymore yelling. "Geez, that stupid guy…"

"Are you really going to buy the plant?" Emil asked with a slight smirk almost cracking between his lips.

"I have to," his friend grimaced. "If I don't, Yao's going to threaten to cancel my phone plan."

"That sucks." Emil could understand. Lukas would do the same if he found out one day his number was listed under something besides "Big Brother."

"Uh, let's see…" Leon mumbled. "I think we're going to be okay. There shouldn't be too many people. We'll see."

As mentioned by Mathias when he was an undergraduate student, Emil saw that the machines ran on fingerprint scans so anyone who wasn't a student couldn't use the machines.

"Are you two new?" the lady at the front desk asked.

"Yeah," Leon said. "Freshmeat." That earned him a smile from the lady.

"Alright. Just give me your ID and I'll tell you when you can register your thumbprints, okay?"

"Sure," Leon replied. Emil also nodded.

A few seconds later, after the lady had typed up their names into the registrar, she gave them the confirmation to put their thumbs on the scanning device. Emil thought it was strange how the machines were only operational through a thumbprint scan, but such was the way of technology.

Once they were registered, the lady told them they were free to go wherever they pleased. Before leaving, she also gave them recommendations if they had never been to a place like this before.

"The staff's always willing to help," she said. "And if you want, you can always ask some of the upperclassmen what their workout regimes are like."

"Thanks," Leon said.

"Oh, by the way," the lady said. "Emil, is it?"

"Uh…Yeah?" Emil suspected she only knew his name because of the registration.

"I like your shirt," she smiled.

Emil could feel his face flushing red. "Um, thanks."

When they left, Leon laughed and nudged his friend in his arm. "See? Maybe wearing that shirt isn't so bad after all."

"Shut up, Leon."

"Pfft," he snickered. "Anyway. We should—Aw, shoot. Did you stretch before we left?"

"No."

Leon pointed to Emil's legs. "You need to stretch before you start. If you pull something, it's on you, and it's not pretty when it happens."

"Leon, it's been a while since I've done P.E.," Emil said. He didn't have the courage to tell him he wanted his friend to stay with him.

"That's easy. You just do some lunges and pulls. Arms and legs. Make sure you don't go too far or you might pull something that way, too."

"Leon—" Emil started after him. "You said you'd stay here."

His friend raised a thick eyebrow. "I already stretched, Emil. I'm just going to reserve some machines in case more people show up."

He had a point. This early in the morning, there were already men and women using the machines to prepare their physical strength for the rest of the day. Emil wasn't sure if more people were going to come, but Leon's decisions were rather rational from an objective point of view.

"Oh, I get it," Leon huffed. "You're scared I'm going to leave you all alone like last night."

"N-No," Emil stammered. "It's just been a while since I've…"

His friend smiled. "Well, you made it all the way here, didn't you? Look, all of these people here aren't judging you because it's your first time. Usually when they see someone knew, they think, 'Oh, it's a new guy.' End of story. Unless they're assholes. Then I'll take care of them, okay? If you want, I'll just be by the weights."

He paused to look at his friend's physique. "Yeah. Judging by the bones on your arms, I'd say you shouldn't waste your time embarrassing yourself on those. When you're done, just tell me so I can show you how to use medicine balls."

_Medicine balls?_ Emil thought. _Like balls filled with medicine?_ He wondered why Lukas hadn't told him about those before. Perhaps it was a new thing.

Well, after Emil managed to finish stretching, he found out what real medicine balls were. He honestly had no idea why they were called medicine balls. They weren't small, and they weren't carrying any medicine in them. Instead, they were like round basketball-sized dumbbells with straps attached to opposite sides. The idea of the medicine balls was to use them as weights for working out one's core and a few arm muscles. Still, the origin of the name was a mystery to Emil.

"So you take them in your hands like so," Leon explained as he wrapped his hands securely into the Velcro straps. At this point, both of them were lying down on yoga mats alongside some of the girls. Some had giggled at Emil's shirt, but no one made fun of him. "Like, make sure you don't drop it because right now, I think it'll crush your stomach. You've literally got no abs."

"Ha ha. Thanks for pointing that out, Leon." To further emphasize his lack of ability, he noticed Leon was carrying a seven-kilogram (~15.4 lbs) medicine ball while he gave him only a four-and-a-half-kilogram (~10 lbs) medicine ball.

"Okay, so you go like this," the more experienced of the friends instructed, holding his weight close to his chest. "When you pull your body up, you thrust the ball out above your head like so. Remember to breath out when you come up or you're not doing it right. I'll show you once."

To demonstrate, Leon repeated the action of preforming a sort of sit-up combined with weight-lifting as he brought the medicine ball out in succession. It looked easy enough.

"Now you try," he said when he finished doing it three times. "Remember to breath out when you come up—and try to do it with your diaphragm."

Considering Emil's medicine ball was almost three kilograms lighter than his friend's, he sought out to prove he wasn't as weak as Leon suspected him to be. The first few were easy enough. He wasn't losing any stamina, and he was able to lift the medicine ball well above his head.

"Good, I think you got it," Leon smiled. "Okay, we'll do this for…" He paused to check his phone. "Five minutes. That'll be enough for now. Then we'll shift to upper body."

"What about running?" Emil asked. He suspected since most of the machines aside from the weights were treadmills, cycling machines, and stair-masters, they would be doing some sort of cardiovascular activity.

"Maybe after everything else," his friend smirked. "That's only if you still have energy after we're done."

"I'm fine, Leon."

"Now you are," he laughed, "but just wait until tomorrow."

After their five minutes, Emil's stomach felt like he hadn't eaten anything for the entire day. Eating sounded good right now. He hadn't had breakfast yet—neither did Leon. He wondered if it was better to eat something before working out, but for now, he trusted his friend's judgment and continued obediently with the program.

Next were bars, padded weights in the shape of iron rods. Each one was almost five and a half kilograms (~12 lbs), but in two hands with one's back supporting the weight, they felt surprisingly light.

"It's just like using weights," Leon explained—of course, he was able to carry three bars at once. "So basically all you have to do is lift them—first only halfway until you make a right angle to your chest." Emil noticed some of the girls were watching him explain himself. "We'll do that for fifteen reps, okay? Then, from there, we go from the middle to your shoulders. Don't pull up too quickly, or you'll damage your back—and don't forget to breathe."

"I got it," Emil grunted. "Don't have to remind me."

Unexpectedly, Leon chuckled earning a slight flustered look from Emil and some giggling from the girls. "If you collapse on me, I'll have to face your big brother's wrath."

Emil didn't want that. However, he noticed his pacing wasn't as frequent as Leon's. He was beginning to miss his lifts, and he was sure he wasn't doing enough lifts to count towards his imaginary quota. Sure, Leon had done this more times than he did, but he was only doing one bar as compared to three. He should have been able to handle himself.

Before he knew it, he was starting to keep his pace—at the expense of his breath. Without having to pause to take a breath, he was able to keep up with whatever music he was listening to.

And then, something happened. His head was feeling light. He thought to take a breath and stop, but he knew he'd sound overly exhausted if he paused. Leon didn't sound like he was out of breath at all. He was even able to talk to him from time to time, but all Emil could respond with was a short nod or a shake of his head. If he stopped now, he'd be panting and wheezing. He knew that.

As time passed on, the refreshingly air-conditioned gym was beginning to feel like one of Tino's saunas. His shirt was beginning to feel like a burden, and he felt like he'd explode with annoyance at any point in time. Even when Leon told him they were almost done, it felt like another half and hour away. His chest was warm and most likely wet—a horrible condition to be in when wearing a cheap white shirt.

"Emil, we're done now," Leon said. "We should drink some water or you're going to get dehydrated. Come on."

But he didn't follow. Instead, he leaned against the nearest wall and slid onto the mats, exhausted.

"Emil?" Leon stopped and bent down. "Hey, are you feeling okay?"

_No, I'm not okay, you dumb shit_, Emil thought. His lungs wanted to explode from keeping his breath inside. His breathing was growing irregular from trying to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide as subtly as possible. He wasn't even using his mouth.

"Shit," his friend cursed. "You forgot to breathe, didn't you?" Since Emil made no response, he had to assume the worst. "That's it. We're done. When you can get up, let me know so we can—"

But he never got to finish because somewhere mid-sentence, Emil collapsed to the ground.

Leon blinked. "Emil? Shit. Emil? Hey…" He froze. His friend had lost consciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

"Idiot."

That was the first thing Emil heard when he regained consciousness. His brother was standing over him with his usual cold blue eyes. Instead of showing concern, he was almost…disappointed.

"This is what happens when you're so stubborn," he sighed, shaking his head. "Leon told me what happened at the gym. They've already checked your condition. You're fine, but it looks like you just lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen. Your friend said something about forgetting to breathe?"

"Sorry," Emil apologized. "How long have you been…?"

"Half an hour," his brother answered. "Leon called me so I came here." He clicked his tongue. "Along with—"

"Emil!"

Immediately after that obnoxious burst of worry, Emil felt his chest get crushed by a strong hug. Some annoying blonde tufts of hair got into his face. It could've only been one person.

"Mathias, get off!" he barked and attempted to struggle away. Lukas took care of that. Without any effort, he grabbed ahold of the Dane's collar and threw him effortlessly across the room. It was a wonder as to how he possessed such strength when he looked no stronger than his younger brother.

"Ah ha ha…" Mathias weakly laughed. "We were so worried about you. You should've seen the look on Lukas' face when he found out you collapsed. He was—_Gyyack!_"

"He doesn't need to hear it," Lukas calmly said as his nails dug deeper into the flesh of his friend's neck. "We don't want to make him feel upset any more than he already is, do we?"

"N-No!" Mathias choked.

Then, Lukas released his grip. "Thought so."

Sighing, Emil ran his hand through his fine white hair. "Anyway, where's Leon?"

"Outside," his brother replied. "He figured he'd have the rest of the day to make it up to you so he let us have some time with you alone."

"Oh." _How considerate of him_, Emil thought.

"But it looks like you're fine," Lukas continued. "There's nothing physically wrong with you so you're able to continue your workout with Leon if you want—just remember to breathe."

"I will. Sorry for making you come all the way here."

"Ah, it's nothing," his brother said. "It's a little nostalgic coming back here and seeing my dear little brother in good spirits."

Emil's face fell. "Do I look like I'm in good spirits?"

"You're not in bad ones." As much as he wanted to refute it, Emil didn't feel like he was feeling particularly down. Even if he had embarrassed himself, he didn't feel too conscious about it—not with his brother and Leon around. Mathias on the other hand…

"Emil, if you're even in a pinch, just give us a call!" he said holding out a thumbs up. "Your big brother's going to be a doctor so he'll treat you right, and with me as a prodigious lawyer (in training), there's nothing the school will bury!"

"You're annoying," Emil hissed. "I don't want to go suing anyone, and you already said there's nothing wrong with me." He sighed. "Besides, if you come here, won't you stir up some unwanted attention?"

"Ah, don't worry about that," Mathias dismissed. "The attention's nothing compared to the kind I get at the grad school."

Lukas rolled his eyes. "You're running your pot-mouth. We're leaving."

"Just like that?" Mathias started.

"I've still got to study before classes. You've got some vocabulary to brush up on as well, don't you?"

"That can wait!"

"Emil, I'll call you on Thursday," Lukas said as he was exiting the room. But, right before he stepped out of the doorway, he looked back and said one last thing. "Oh, and one more thing, little brother…"

"Now what?" Emil asked.

Lukas blinked. "Nice shirt."

"Get out!" he shouted as his brother and his friend disappeared from view. When they were gone, Leon returned into the room and sat himself next to him.

"Hey," he said to Emil.

"Hey," he responded back.

Leon pressed his lips together and looked away. As usual, he rubbed the back of his neck and furrowed his eyebrows whenever he was feeling doubtful.

"Look, I…I'm s—I told you to breathe."

At first, Emil was nearly annoyed with the fact that his own friend wasn't coming out to apologize to him, but he soon understood the reason: Lukas must've given him an earful. No wonder he was upset.

"I didn't think I was going to pass out," he replied.

Leon arched his thick eyebrows. "Yeah? And you think it wouldn't have ended in something like getting death glares and subtle death _threats_ from your brother?"

Emil scrunched his face. "Lukas gave you death threats?"

His friend rubbed his neck. "Like I said: _subtly._ He didn't say anything like he was going to kill me, but he said if he gets a call about something like this again that…I wouldn't get to be your friend anymore."

"Huh." Emil almost found it amusing if it wasn't for the fact that Leon wasn't genuinely worried. "So instead of our friendship breaking apart, you'd think he'd kill you first?"

Leon looked up. "We're still friends, aren't we?"

Emil had to smile at that question. It wasn't often when Leon was the innocent one in their friendship. "Of course we are."

-

After Emil and Leon had left the nurse's office (which was conveniently located next to the gym), they decided that they had enough of working out for the day, and they chose to head on back to their dorm for a change of clothes—Emil especially.

"Ugh," Emil groaned. "I can't believe you made me wear something like this stupid shirt." He was glad to take of his "GO TO HELL" shirt. Thankfully, since it was still within morning hours, there weren't too many students wandering around campus on this non-school day.

"Oh, wait, wait, wait!" Leon quickly jumped up. "Don't take it off just yet! I wanna, like, take a picture and show Cheng and Mei!"

Emil's expression fell flat. "No."

"Come on…Do it for Cheng and Mei if not for me."

"No."

"Cheng's not going to spread it around," Leon scoffed, "and I'm sure Mei won't…"

"No means no," Emil said. "Whatever you send goes through Yao's stupid monitoring filter. He's going to get it sooner or later. The last thing I need is for a picture to circulate through your Chinese grapevine."

Leon rubbed his chin as though in deep thought. "Well, you still don't have any workout clothes. There'll be plenty of times for me to get a snapshot some other time."

"No, Leon." Emil thought he sounded stupid for scolding his own friend like a parent. "I'm going to go take a shower."

"Hmm. I'd come, too, but I, like, hardly broke a sweat training you. I'll just get dressed. When you're done, we can go to the D.C. to eat."

"Sure." He could use a decent meal after working out for the first time in what felt like years.

The layout of Opal Hall was built in such a way that every five rooms shared a bathroom. Being that it was co-educational, the bathrooms were separated by gender, but the women's restroom was located on the other side of the hall for privacy reasons. Emil couldn't complain since that meant having the bathrooms right across his room and being able come and go as he pleased.

In Opal Hall, the bathrooms consisted of four sinks, two toilets, and two shower stalls. There were shelves for putting personal items, but since there could be possible theft and sabotaging, Lukas had advised him to keep his shower supplies inside his dorm. A little inconvenience could go a long way—not to mention the hand soap was not included so everyone had to bring their own.

_Wonder if anyone's in here…_ Emil thought as he came inside the restroom. When he peeked around, no one was at the sink. He then thought to look underneath the stalls. No legs. It was empty.

"Perfect," he mumbled out loud and picked the shower stall closest to his side of the door (since there were two doors leading out to opposite ends of the hall).

This wouldn't be his first time taking a shower in the dorms. During his orientation, he had spent the night at Gold Hall, and for experience, Lukas had suggested getting used to the shower system before officially settling in. It wasn't much different from home other than the recommendation of wearing sandals into the shower stalls—one never knew what could have happened on the floors, after all. There was that and having to take his supplies back into his room with him.

The entire time Emil showered and got dressed, no one from the floor came in to use the restrooms—strange considering there were at least nine other people sharing this restroom. He couldn't complain, though.

After that, he gathered his supplies and returned to his dorm without confronting anyone in the hall. Leon was listening to music and flipping through his phone while he was waiting.

"You done?" he asked, taking off his headphones.

"Yeah," Emil grunted, ruffling his hair with a towel. His silvery white hair was stylized in such a way that no matter what he did to it, it always ended up falling flat into a messy bedhead sort of style. The same could be said about Lukas and Mathias. The most Lukas had to do with his hair was clip it back with his family heirloom hairpin. With Mathias' hair, anything went—so Lukas had mentioned when they had roomed together. According to him, the only time the Dane's hair ever looked tame was when he'd immediately come out of the shower. How his hair was able to defy gravity was a mystery.

Truth be told, Emil wasn't sure what Leon and the rest of his family did with their hair. Every time Leon would shower, Emil wasn't there to see it. He made a mental reminder to watch out for whenever his friend would hit the showers.

Once Emil's hair was dry, the two set off down the stairs. Since they hadn't gotten the chance to do cardio exercises, Leon suggested taking the stairs—again.

"Always the stairs…" Emil grumbled. "Are we ever going to use the elevator?"

"Think of this as your workout, Ice," Leon snickered. He wasn't even breaking a sweat as usual. "But if you want, we can take the elevator on our way ba—Oh! I have an idea! How's about heading over to Gold Hall and hanging out with Yong Soo and Charlie after breakfast?"

Emil wrinkled his nose. "_Charlie?_"

"Charles," Leon corrected himself. "Whatever."

"That guy's a prick," Emil snorted. "Talks funny, too."

"That's 'cause he's from Australia—Hutt River to be exact. It's supposed to be its own country. I'd still call it Australia since it's completely landlocked by it, but he got mad so don't bring that up, yeah?"

"Sure thing. So how about Yong Soo? He talks kind of funny, too."

"Korea," his friend answered. "Found out he was studying overseas at, like, seven different countries in his life."

"Wow. Did you ask what his parents do?"

"Uh…I think one of them's an electrical engineer for a private company*, he told me. So, like, I guess their family went around the world a lot. The guy's pretty smart, too."

Emil shrugged. "Well, you sort of have to be to get into this school."

"Yeah, but, like, he can speak—what was it—Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, German, some French, and English."

"Oh." Even Emil thought that was impressive. He could barely speak Norwegian after being exposed to English for so long at Academy W. Leon, on the other hand was able to fluently speak Mandarin and Cantonese as well as English, but just to "piss Yao off," he pretended he only knew how to understand Cantonese.

"So how about it, Emil?" Leon asked getting back on subject. "Wanna hang out with them?"

"I'd rather stay in," he refused.

"Hmm. Hey, what ever happened to that Michelle girl last night? Did you at least get her number?"

"No," Emil frowned. "Why would I? I'd sound like a creep."

"No, you wouldn't. Here, it's like this." Just as Emil was about to roll his eyes, his friend wandered off without warning and approached some girls who happened to be walking by.

Unfortunately for Emil, he was too stunned and too far out of range to hear what Leon was saying to them, but whatever it was, it involved pointing over to him and a few flustered giggles from the ladies.

_Oh, this can't be good…_ Emil sighed when Leon returned. He noticed the girls waving as they went their separate ways.

"See?" Leon smirked as he held his phone out to him. "Check it out. I got their phone numbers."

"You barely even talked to them!" Emil burst out. "What'd you say to them?"

"I said my friend—a.k.a. you—"

"_What?!_"

"—was too shy to ask you—as in the blonde one with the short hair—for your number so you think I could just relay yours over to him?"

Emil was about to explode. "Leon…did you…?"

"I gave 'em your number in exchange for hers," Leon grinned. "They didn't seem to mind."

Emil smacked his face with the palm of his hand. "Leon, tell me you're lying…"

"Telling the truth. Now how's about that breakfast, huh?"

-

During breakfast, they spotted Yong Soo and Charles eating together at a booth. It looked like they wouldn't have to look for them after breakfast after all.

"Yo!" Yong Soo beamed, raising a hand. "Leon an' Emil, right?"

"Eh, yeah…" Emil mumbled. He was surprised anyone would remember his name. A few greetings later, he and Leon sat at the same booth: Leon with Yong Soo, and Emil with Charles.

"The food here isn't nearly as well-done as my gourmet cuisine back home," Charles sniffed after clearing his plate. While he had complained throughout the whole ordeal of eating his breakfast, he made a small point about refusing to waste resources so he managed to finish everything—somehow.

Emil, on the other hand, sat in silence, mainly focusing on his meal. Being that his mouth was usually full of food, he preferred not to talk only delivering a short answer or gesture here and there.

Leon and Yong Soo were the real chatterboxes of the table. Emil wouldn't admit it aloud, but they're personalities were oddly compatible: they both had vast knowledge of the world around them, enjoyed playing pranks on their guardians, and loved movies and music—that being said, their tastes in movies and music were different, but they were liberal enough that they could accept one another's differences.

The place where they did come into strange disagreement throughout their conversation was through spicy foods. Yong Soo loved spicy foods, he said. Leon, on the other hand, was not a fan.

"I thought you put a crazy amount of wasabi on your sushi, Leon," Emil grimaced when his friend brought that up.

"That's different," Leon said. "Ya never know when, like, there's going to be some bad fish. If I'm going to eat it, I might as well not taste something bad."

Emil rolled his eyes. "You and your iron stomach."

"Pfft," his friend snickered. "Speaking of stomach, Emil and I, like, went to the gym to do core this morning right before coming here."

"Oh, yeah?" Yong Soo paused to take a bite of toast. "I haven't gone yet. How was it?"

"Not bad," he replied, "but, I mean, my cousins have already been here so they knew what it was like."

"Must be convenient having relatives who attended the same prestigious school as you," Charles commented.

"Emil's older brother went here, too," Leon pointed out. "He still does. He's in the graduate program for medicine."

Charles looked over to Emil. "Oh, is that right?" he asked. Emil, whose mouth was stuffed with eggs, only nodded.

"Yeah, so going back to the gym, we were doing some core training first before heading on over to cardio," Leon continued. "But, like, so we were about to get some water when Ice, here, starts acting all funny."

"Leon…" Emil fidgeted in place. He had since finished his breakfast. "Do you have to tell them about that?"

"It's a funny story," he smirked. "Well, besides the whole passing out thing."

Yong Soo raised an eyebrow at Leon's friend. "You passed out?"

"Sort of…" he admitted. No point in hiding anything now that Leon was running his mouth.

"Uh-huh. Emil suddenly just leaned against the wall and went out like a light. We had to take him to the nurse's office to see if something was wrong with him. I called up his brother, you know, since he's studying to be a doctor and 'cause he's family…

"Anyway, so by the time Emil's brother—his name is Lukas, by the way—comes over, they said Emil just lost consciousness because he, like, held his breath too long or something."

Yong Soo burst out laughing. Charles mustered a slightly amused look.

"Emil, you must be a really stubborn guy!" he laughed. "You held your breath long enough to pass out? Oh, man, I thought that was impossible!"

"That's not the best part," Leon smirked. "It was the shirt I loaned him. Oh, gosh, you guys, like, have to see it."

"What shirt?" Charles asked.

"We're not showing them that shirt," Emil growled, his opinion final.

"I'm not going to describe it," Leon told them. "It's a shirt you have to see to believe. How about the next time we workout you guys come with us?"

"I'm cool with that," Yong Soo agreed.

"…I suppose if the shirt really is worth it," Charles reluctantly piped in.

"Oh, it's worth it," Emil's friend mischievously grinned. Emil had all but disappeared under the table now. That's when Leon's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Crap," he gasped. "Ice, we're supposed to go buy the plant."

"_You_ are," Emil reminded him, "not me."

"But don't you wanna, like check out the town?"

Being uninformed about the plant, Yong Soo and Charles were looking lost on the subject.

"Pardon me for intruding, but what plant are you referring to?" Charles asked. "Is it perhaps something to do with your class?"

Leon shook his head. "No. My guardian's this _fengshui_ fanatic, and one of the things to make our room perfectly balanced is to have a potted plant. It can't be a bonsai, though, because my old man says it's supposed to mean the room is controlling and suppressed."

"Ooh," Yong Soo spoke up. "Did you know _fengshui_ originated in Korea?"

Now it was Leon and Emil's turn to look lost.

Leon's amber eyes were nearly trembling with emotion. "Um, excuse me, but what?"

"_Fengshui_ was adopted by the Chinese in the early C.E. times," the Korean explained. "The Koreans are the ones who believed that having specific colors in their households and decorating them with specific objects would bring good fortune and health."

"Uh…" Leon was nearly speechless. It wasn't often when Emil would see him like this. He almost felt _bad_ for his friend. "I hate to burst your bubble, Yong Soo, but you do know that _fengshui_ is literally spelled with Chinese characters, right? The characters even spell out wind and water.

"And the Chinese have been using _fengshui_ since the _B.C.E._ times so your claim is false."

"No," Yong Soo stubbornly said. "Koreans came up with it first. The Chinese thought it was cool so they adopted it and changed their records so it looked like they were the ones who invented it. All they had to do was write records about an earlier date, and that was all. That and they destroyed Korean records."

"That's stupid," Leon huffed.

While Yong Soo and Leon were ensuing in their little argument, Charles leaned over to Emil and whispered, "He was like this with me when I first roomed in with him. He thinks Koreans came up with the idea of using velvet for capes."

"Huh…" Emil didn't know what to say. Good with languages or not, Yong Soo's sense of history wasn't exactly in the right place.

Somehow, the two had dropped the subject and went back on track with Leon's original statement. "Whatever. So, anyway, I need to by a plant and send a picture of it to my old man by tonight; otherwise, he'll threaten to cancel my phone plan. He's big on that stuff."

"So you'll have to go into town, then," Charles concluded, taking some final sips of his water.

"Yeah," Leon said. "Emil's going. You guys wanna tag along?"

Emil made a face. "When did I say I was going?"

"If you don't go, who knows when you'll go into town?"

"That didn't answer my question," Emil snapped. "I was planning on—"

"Calling up that girl?" Leon smirked.

"What girl?" Yong Soo asked. "Emil, you have a girlfriend? Never took you to be the type—"

"I don't!" he snarled. "Stupid Leon, here, swapped my phone number with some girl on our way here, and now…" He ran his hand through his silver bangs. "…Now she probably thinks I'm some weirdo!"

"No need to worry about that," Charles reassured him, unfazed. "Back where I lived, I was the talk of the school. Why, I received so much attention that I didn't know how to manage all of the ladies. You know what the simplest thing to do would be?"

"What?" Emil doubted he had anything useful to offer.

"Ignore them. Never call back or reply to their messages, and you'll be done with that. Besides, Eliatha University is a large campus. What are the odds you'll see her again?"

"I don't know…" he mumbled. "But really, Leon. I'm tired. You can go on without me, can't you?"

"Mm, but I thought perhaps you'd, like, be able to buy some proper workout apparel—"

"Fine, I'll go," Emil grunted. This was going to be a long day.


	6. Chapter 6

The updated bus schedules were posted online for students wanting to commute or explore the area surrounding Eliatha University. Being that the school was practically constructed on the top of a hill, it was far away from any noise or suspicious activity that one might find late at night on the streets.

Today, the four companions—Leon, Emil, Yong Soo, and Charles—were going to take the bus to the plaza square in Eliatha City. Everyone referred to going down from the campus as "going into town," but it was technically incorrect since Eliatha was more of a city than a small town. Nevertheless that's what the students and professors referred to it as.

Having relatives who had visited the city more often than Emil's brother, Leon suggested they go to Bull's Eye*. They wouldn't get there until the fifth stop, so all they could do was wait and listen to their music, each other's voices, or the other conversations happening on the bus.

Since Emil was without his headphones and everyone else was occupying themselves with their own music, he was forced to listen to a conversation of some jocks nearby—at least, he thought they were jocks by the hard muscles showing through their shirts and the way they laughed.

"So the dude's wasted by the time we even get to the party," one of them said. "Man, I tell him about the first rule to going to a party, an' he completely blows it off."

"Don't get drunk before the party," the guys all repeated in unison. Emil wondered if they belonged to one of the nearby fraternities. Then again, if they did, they wouldn't be riding the bus. In Eliatha, they would have been wealthy enough to afford to have cars.

"Hey, so, Alfred, I heard your brother's in college now," he heard someone say.

"Yeah. He's going to some college over in Canada. He's going off to biology."

"Sweet. So you're going to get a doctor in the family, huh?"

"No, like, he's studying real biology. He's always wanted to study wildlife in the Canadian wilderness."

"Oh. That's cool, too, I guess."

Emil could understand. He suspected most of the students he'd see at his biology lecture would be trying to get into medical school. Lukas went through that, too. He had told him barely a handful of students would be able to get into medical school, and even fewer would have the privilege of attending Eliatha University's rigorous graduate program. It had never crossed Emil's mind that he might have considered going into medical school, so he was usually unfazed by the pre-medical students.

"Mm, gotta go," the one named Alfred said as the bus stopped. "I'm meeting my girlfriend here**."

"Say 'Hi' to her for us, wouldja?" the others called back.

"No prob'!"

Emil then watched as Alfred got off the bus and began walking down the street. With him out of the conversation, his friends began to talk about him.

"What's his girlfriend's name again?"

"I forgot, but they went to the same high school together. Some really fucked up shit happened between them before hooking up."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Totally. Al' even got hit by a car saving her at senior prom."

"Holy shit."

"But, like, his girl's supposed to be super smart. She was the valedictorian back in high school. I think she still is."

"Damn. Going to be one hell of a graduation then. Dude's a lucky guy."

"Yeah."

Just then, Emil felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hey," Leon hissed. "This is our stop."

Emil and the rest of his acquaintances silently followed off the bus and got off after thanking the bus driver. Since it was still early in the afternoon, there weren't too many people walking around.

"Huh," Leon said. "It's quieter than I thought it'd be."

Charles threw in his input. "But of course. It's a weekday barely before lunch starts. What would you expect?"

"Whatever," Leon shrugged. "Um, so, like, when we get to Bull's Eye, you wanna just go over to the clothes section, Emil? I'm just going to go check out some of the plants and make sure it won't die on us." He clicked his tongue. "Knowing Yao, I'm gonna have to take care of it or else he'll give me shit."

"Yeah, that's fine," Emil replied. He turned his attention to Yong Soo and Charles. "So what are you guys going to do?"

"Look around and maybe see if there're any cool stores," Yong Soo answered.

Charles was inspecting the map on his smartphone. "My parents suggested I look around the area to see if there are any stores this shopping center lack," he told everyone. "If there is something that I could possibly invest in, then that would be wise to look into. There are plenty of students around this area. It never hurts to try to milk them for profits."

"Fair enough," Leon smirked. "I'd go with you, but I have to buy the plant."

"Perhaps some other time, then."

"Anyway," Emil looked at his phone, "we have to be back here in an hour for the next bus. Is that enough time for everyone?"

Everyone nodded so Yong Soo and Charles went their separate ways. Leon walked with Emil to Bull's Eye.

"Actually, you know," Leon began when they were nearing the store, "back when Cheng first came here—when I was still in Hong Kong—Yao was thinking about setting up shop here one day."

"Oh yeah?" Emil thought that made sense. When Yao wasn't busy dealing with overseas trade, he had a few multiple businesses his family members set up here and there. "So what kind of store was he thinking of opening?"

"A boba place," his friend told him. "It was actually Mei's idea. There isn't one in the area, and if the place was able to serve some hot food and other little snacks, we thought maybe students would like to hang out here. It'd have to be close to the bus stop, though, otherwise the students wouldn't want to walk the extra distance to get here. We were also thinking of giving students a little discount for their purchases to rake in the business."

"Cool. So are you still thinking about it, Leon?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "Yao wanted me to see if it was still possible. I'd have to scout for a good location, though, since the rest of my family's too busy to do it on their own."

"Must be nice being able to set something up so easily," Emil commented. "You think you're going to discuss this with Charles? He seems like that kind of person."

"Nah, Charles talks like the kind of guy who'd want, like, eighty percent of the profits. Yao'd never have that in his business."

Just as Emil was going to comment about the pompous prick, they arrived at the doors of Bull's Eye.

"Okay, so, like, I'm just going to grab a plant, and I'll be done," Leon said. Depending on the situation, he could be an in-and-out kind of shopper. "Want me to wait for you?"

"Uh…" Emil appreciated the offer. Seeing as how his friend was good with fashion, he could have used some tips on what to pick. "I don't mind."

"Then I'll meet you by the fitting rooms," his friend concluded. "See ya in a bit."

"Yeah."

Within an hour, everyone had completed their tasks and met back up at the bus stop. While waiting, Leon suddenly tapped Emil's shoulder and pointed him to the other side of the street.

"What?" he frowned. "They're just girls."

"Not just any girls," his friend snickered. When Emil peered closer, he noticed one of them had unusually dark skin. Like the night before, she was wearing a dress, but this time, it was white. Along side her was a girl with short blonde hair and another with glasses and braided sandy blonde hair much like Charles'.

"Michelle! Lili!" Leon shouted over to them.

_Crap!_ Emil hissed. He was wondering why the one with the blonde hair looked familiar; she was the one Leon gave his number to.

"Oh! Emil!" Michelle beamed. "Fancy seeing you here!"

"Uh…Hi, Michelle," he awkwardly replied.

"Hmm?" Yong Soo looked up. "Who're these chicks?"

Leon made the incomplete introductions. "Michelle, Lili, and…"

"Cécile***," the one with glasses clarified.

"Cool. So are you three roommates?"

"Yep!" Michelle cheerfully answered in her fellow roommates' places.

_That's right_, Emil thought, _Topaz Hall has triples._

Then, he noticed Lili, the short blonde one, tugging at Cécile's sleeve.

"Something wrong, Lili?" she asked.

"That's him," she whispered, eyeing Emil with a flustered look.

_Oh, crap._

"Oh!" Michelle looked over to Emil. "So the one who asked you for your number was…Emil?"

"You've got it all wrong!" Emil burst out. "L-Leon! He was the one who—! I don't even know her!"

"Look at that!" Leon quickly said. "The bus is here! How about we make introductions on the bus, yeah? We can talk on the way back."

Everyone, confused about what exactly was going on, reluctantly agreed and hopped on the bus together. When they found their seats, Leon introduced the guys.

"I'm Leon, and this is my friend and roommate, Emil," he said gesturing over to his silver-haired friend. "These two are Yong Soo and Charles. They live in Gold Hall."

"Charmed," Charles politely nodded.

"Yo," Yong Soo smiled. Emil wished he could be as casual as the others in this situation.

"So, Emil," Cécile began as she folded her hands across her lap, "Lili was mentioning something about how Leon told her you were interested in her?"

"Th-That…" Emil could feel his face flushing a crimson red. "That wasn't me. I didn't mean to freak you out, Lili. Really. Leon's the one who did it. He only asked you because he wanted to prove getting a girl's number isn't such a big deal."

"Well, then…" Cécile turned her attention towards Leon. "…Mr. Leon, I should tell you that getting a lady's number is _not_ something that should be done just for laughs. It is a serious matter, and you should know that Lili is an exceptionally sensitive individual. I should know."

"Cissy…" Lili mumbled, a slight blush on her face. Emil suspected that was her nickname for Cécile. He thought it was appropriate given that Cécile acted like an older sister. "I'm fine. Really. As long as my brother doesn't find out about this…"

"It's inexcusable," her roommate said with a stern look on her face. She then turned to Emil, throwing him an icy cold look that reminded him distantly of Lukas' eyes. "Mr. Emil, if you have no use for Lili's number, then I'm going to have to ask you to delete it from your list of contacts. It will do you no good keeping it in your phone, and if anything, it'll make things worse for you in the long run."

"Eh…Sure, I don't mind," Emil chuckled and took out his phone. He was glad to have a valid reason to take the mysterious number off his list.

That's when Leon stopped him. "Lili, what's your major?" he suddenly asked.

The timid girl blinked. "Z-Zoology," she quietly replied.

"So you're going to be taking biology, right?"

"Um…Yes. With Michelle."

"Then there's no reason for any of you to delete your numbers," Leon said.

Emil hissed into his friend's ear. "Leon, are you crazy? Didn't you hear Cécile? She has a brother! What if he's some psycho like Lukas?"

"But Emil, here, is a marine biology major just like Michelle," Leon said, ignoring his friend's uneasiness. "He's taking biology, too. That means it'll be better for you to keep your numbers in case you ever want to study together."

Unconvinced, Cécile narrowed her eyes. "And what makes you think Lili will want to study with someone like him?"

"Because Emil's shy," Leon flay-out said. "He's not a social kind of guy, and from the looks of it—no offense or anything—Lili is, too. It'd be a win-win situation."

"Lili already has Michelle to study with," Cécile pointed out.

"Yeah, but the more people to study with, the better," Leon told her. He turned to Lili. "Lili, would you like to study with someone like Emil?"

_Oh, gods_, Emil groaned and bowed his head. He didn't need to hear her answer. Just looking at her was enough to make him flustered. Leon was taking things too far again.

"Um…I don't mind," she quietly said.

"You don't?" Emil and Cécile said in unison.

"No," she blushed. "I think it'd be fine."

"Cool!" Leon beamed. "So everything's fine!"

_Everything is _not_ fine!_ Emil shouted in his head.

"Hmm. Two girls in two days," Lukas said over the phone. "You're quite the popular player, little brother."

"Shut up," Emil grunted. "You're the last person I needed to hear that from."

"_You're_ the one who called _me_. Have you decided who's going to bottom?"

"I—_What?_"

"If you're going to be in a relationship with one of them, you should think about who's going to take control," his brother specified. "After all, you let your roommate take the reins. If you were in a relationship, I'd say you'd definitely qualify as a bottom."

"No need to get graphic, Lukas."

"…Some static is in the phone," his brother teased.

"You're giving me too much information, Brother!" Emil shouted. Gods, how he wished his brother wasn't such a tease. "Forget it. Talking to you was a waste of time. I'm hanging up!"

Lukas chuckled. "Goodnight, little brother."

Emil groaned. He hated it when his brother would act indifferent towards his discomfort. "G-Goodnight…Big Brother."

Outside in Opal Hall's quad, Leon was talking over the phone with Cheng. If there was anyone who played the real father and big brother figure in his family, it was his cousin.

"Like, I saw this place that looked like it was going out of business over around the bus stop," he said. "It's some kind of printing store. You think that's a good place to open something up?"

"We'd have to return and look at it," Cheng said, "but I trust your judgment."

Leon sighed. "Anyway, where's the old man?"

"He's off to Hong Kong again," his cousin answered. "He's making sure a shipment of stuffed toys are safely shipped from Macau in the process."

"Huh. Leave it to him to make sure of that kind of stuff," Leon snorted. "Anyway, how's life?"

"The same." From his tone, it sounded as though Cheng could be smiling. He smiled quite often, though. "Regardless of your opinion on Yao, he still thinks about you."

"Yeah, but not in the right ways. And Mei?"

"She misses you, too. She said something about how there's no one around to share tastes in music and fashion with."

Leon laughed. "I can't imagine you in anything but sharp clothes, anyway."

He could hear his cousin chuckling. "So what about you? Enjoying college life?"

"It's alright." Leon yawned. "Classes don't start for a while so, like, it's kind of boring right now."

"That's understandable. But you've already gone to the gym and went to the city. I can't say there's not much else to do until classes open up. Are you being a good friend to Emil?"

"I think so…"

"You think so?"

"We kind of got in a fight after coming back from shopping."

"Oh? Did something happen?"

Leon rubbed the back of his neck. "Ice said I was being too controlling with his life. But I thought it was fine. Because of me, he has two study buddies."

Cheng paused. "Tell me about it."

So, Leon went into details about what had happened at the party last night and the ride on the busy—as well as everything else in between. Knowing how Cheng could read his tone, he spared no details. When he was done, he waited for his cousin to give him his input.

"Leon," Cheng began, "now I'm not saying you were wrong, but I think you should give Emil some space to be himself. The two of you are in college now, and that means being granted some personal freedoms that you would not otherwise have.

"If Emil doesn't want to study with other people, you should understand that it's his ultimate decision and his alone. Whether or not it affects his academic performance is really his responsibility."

"But…" Leon spoke up.

"Do you remember why you wanted to be Emil's friend to begin with?" Cheng asked.

"…Because I thought he needed one."

"And you don't want him to lose that friend, do you?"

"No," Leon sighed. "I guess I've been a dick."

"I wouldn't put it that way," Cheng laughed, "but try to go easy on Emil. You know he's sensitive."

"Yeah." He smiled. "Hey, um, thanks, Cheng. I think I'll go talk to Ice."

"No need to thank me, Leon," his cousin said. "Remember you can call me any time."

"Mm-hmm. Night, Cheng."

"Goodnight, Leon."

When Leon hung up, he looked up at his dorm's window. Even from the first floor, he could see the potted plant leaning on the shelf facing the northern direction.

"Stupid old man," he sighed with a smile as he made his way back inside. He took the stairs.

By the time Leon returned, Emil had gotten ready for bed again. Calling his brother hadn't exactly made things better, and as a result, he was left feeling as restless as this afternoon.

"Ice…" he heard Leon whisper. "Ice, you up?"

"I'm up," Emil whispered back, leaning over the rail. "What do you want?"

Leon looked away for a brief second before returning his amber eyes on him. "I'm sorry—for all the shit I've been giving you."

Emil blinked. He thought when the time came that Leon would apologize, he'd be unforgiving and cold. Now that it had happened, he wasn't sure how to react.

"Whatever," he shrugged. "Just don't do it again."

"Huh?" Leon gaped. "Just like that? You're not mad?"

"Too restless to be mad," he muttered.

"Oh." His friend paused. "Hey, so you're, like, not feeling tired?"

"Not really, no."

"Wanna play some _Hetalia Fantasia?_ We've got time."

Emil furrowed his eyebrows. It had been a while. Since starting out, he was still stuck around journeyman while Leon had risen to only a few ranks below Yao as the richest player in the game.

"I'll just suck," he said.

"No, I'll help you," his friend offered. "They have this experience-sharing bracelet that lets you get the experience from the monsters I kill. Just stick behind me, and I'll grind some levels for you."

"Leon, my character's kind of weak…" What was he saying? Why was he being so cold? Of course he wanted to play. There was nothing else to do in the university until classes started, and chances were he wouldn't be able to play once school rolled around.

"Ice, you'll be fine," Leon smiled. He was already booting up his laptop. "C'mon, I'll wait for you to log in, okay?"

Finally, Emil sighed and threw over his covers. "Is it alright if I sit on your bed, Leon?"

"Sure," he said and scooted towards the edge of his bed to make room for him.

When Emil had finished getting his charger and hooking up to the campus' connection, he and Leon logged into their usual online role-playing game.

"Pfft," Leon snickered as they met up with each other. "You know Yong Soo plays this game?"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Mm-hmm. His level stats are supposed to be off the charts. Dude has way too much time on his hands. That's what happens when you're a computer science major—always carrying your computer wherever you go."

Emil raised an eyebrow. "Is that true?" At this point, Leon connected his character with the experience-sharing bracelet. It was a set so regardless of who made the kill, their experience points would be shared.

Leon stuck his tongue out. "Beats me. That Korean just has that sort of vibe. Maybe we'll even see him."

"I don't want to," Emil flatly responded. His friend laughed.

"That's fine, too. It's been a while since I've been able to play with you without your brother tailing behind."

"Ah." Back when Emil would invite Leon over to his house, Lukas would insist on playing, too. His character consisted of a type of mage who possessed unusually high status points. Emil always wondered how his brother found the time to level his character up so high, but he never got the chance to ask.

That being said, since Lukas was at a much higher level than Emil, he had followed behind his little brother wherever they went to make sure monsters wouldn't overpower him. Emil wouldn't have complained, but since they lacked the experience-sharing bracelets, having his brother defeat any monsters ruined his chances of leveling up.

"You don't need to worry about leveling up as long as I'm here," Lukas had once said much to his little brother's annoyance. At least now he was too busy catching up on his medical stu—

"Fuck."

Leon almost flinched. It wasn't often when Emil would blatantly curse. "What's wrong?" Then, he looked over at his friend's chat screen. "Oh, shit. Is that Lukas? What the hell is he doing playing at this hour?"

Sure enough, to Emil's horror, a high-level mage began walking over to Emil and Leon's characters and started up a personal chat.

**CrossCurser:** What are you two boys doing up? I thought you were going to sleep, Ice.

Emil buried his face into his hands. "Lukas, you asshole…"

**KingChan:** liek piss off, bro. were jus playing cuz theres no school.

**CrossCurser:** Your spelling is horrendous, Leon. Ice, log off.

Emil and Leon exchanged looks.

**PuffinMaster0624:****** And if I don't?

A pause from both parties.

**CrossCurser:** Then I'll kill both you and Leon.

"Crap," Leon said aloud. "Your brother's stats are pretty high. I mean, I can kill him, but…"

"…Somehow I don't think that's a good idea," Emil finished also wearing a befuddled look.

"Guess we're logging off," Leon sighed. Without typing anything else into the chat, he logged out with Emil following after. "Goddammit. I was kinda hoping we wouldn't have to worry about him."

Once the two of them had logged off, they both sat side by side wearing blank expressions on their faces. Then, Leon heard a snicker followed by a full-blown laugh. Emil was laughing. Soon after, Leon followed.

"Wh-What the actual fuck just happened?" He was gasping for breath. "Holy shit, I was really scared."

"Me, too," Emil chuckled. "For a second, I thought we were really going to fight him."

"Oh, gosh." Leon wiped his eyes. "If we killed him, he would be so mad the next time we see him. Can you imagine how long it must've taken him to level up that high?"

"Too long," Emil smirked. "But that was good."

"Totally."

After catching their breaths, with nothing else better to do, Leon and Emil shut off their laptops and returned to their beds.

"Hey, Leon?" Emil piped up.

"Mm, yeah?"

"Today wasn't too bad."

"Yeah?" A smile was nearly cracking on Leon's face.

"Lots of crazy stuff happened."

"Yep."

"It was pretty wild for the first full day in college. I had fun."

Leon smiled. "Me, too."

"…Good night, Leon."

"G'night, Ice."


	7. Chapter 7

Feliks was making his morning rounds through the doors when Leon was dreaming. Having just woken up, he fondly remembered his feet being pulled under molasses as he jump-kicked a man in a black jumpsuit away from an Emil in distress.

…At least, he thought it was Emil. He had long hair and a nice rack.

"Wakey, wakey, sleepy heads!" he heard a sassy voice shout from the other side of the door. "You guys've got crash classes! Up, up, up!"

"Crash classes?" Leon heard Emil mumble from above. He was awake, too. "What was that, again?"

"Uh…" He tried to think of something the residential assistant brought up, but he couldn't quite recall. Running out of ideas, he flipped through his phone and saw that some time late at night, Feliks had sent out a text message with a reminder:

**Crash classes tomorrow at 7! It's mandatory!**

Leon groaned and flopped back on his pillow. "I don't know what it is, but it's mandatory," he yawned. "Looks like we've, like, gotta get ready for that. Damn Feliks…I'm gonna give him hell."

"Don't," his friend said. He was already crawling down from his bunk. "Let's just get ready so we're not late."

"Whatever, Ice," Leon slurred and rolled off his mattress.

"Totally sorry, but I forgot to tell you guys you had crash classes today," Feliks quickly apologized as he led his little group of freshmeat towards the auditorium.

"What're crash classes?" someone from the crowd asked.

"They're like, little versions of your classes," the residential assistant explained. "Basically, you get to see the professors, and they'll, like, talk a little bit about the overview of your courses. It also lets you guys get an idea of where your classes are."

"If that's the case, then shouldn't you have told us to get our bikes?" someone else groaned.

"Nah, you're going to need the exercise," Feliks replied. "Don't wanna gain those freshmen fifteen, do ya? So, anyway, as I was saying, we're going to be meeting in the auditorium for a quick little rally, and then we'll pull you off into classes, m'kay?"

"Wait a sec," a student said. "There's nearly three thousand of us. There's no way the auditorium's going to fit that many freshmen."

"Oh, don't worry about that, kiddo. We're doing this by halls. First round is Opal, Topaz, and half of Gold. Later at ten, it's going to be Ruby, Sapphire, and the other half of Gold."

A chorus of groans sounded out from the freshmeat.

"You mean you forgot to tell us, _and_ we had to go to the early session?"

"Life's not always fair. Get used to it."

Leon and Emil were trailing somewhere behind the back at this point. With everything that had happened yesterday, neither of them were in the condition to make any smart remarks without mustering a yawn.

"Mm, so, like, that means you might be seeing Michelle and Lili," Leon told his friend.

"Mm-hmm." Emil stopped to yawn. "Guess so."

"Wonder how long the crash classes are."

"Beats me. Lukas never said anything about this."

Leon tossed his head back to get the uncombed bangs out of his eyes. "Neither did Cheng or Mei. Wonder if this is new."

"I dunno."

Regardless, all the students eventually made their way to the auditorium where Gold and Topaz Halls had already arrived. Like a slap on the face to Feliks, even Toris' side of the floor was already there.

"Feliks, you're a little late," his counterpart residential assistant commented.

"That's because the little freshmeat had some trouble getting up," he explained.

"Bullshit!" someone shouted. "He forgot! He woke us all up just to come out to this thing!"

"Uh…" Toris ultimately decided to drop it to save the embarrassment of both the students and Feliks. "Never mind. Everyone, please fill up all the empty spaces. There are still people coming in."

When Leon and Emil took their seat, the lights began to dim, and the doors closed behind them. Then, in the center stage, two tall and grand-looking figures began walking towards the center. One of them had curly brown hair that looked unkempt, but because of his muscular build it made him appear youthful. The other had straight blonde hair that was tidily braided into a ponytail; one might have thought he was a new-age hippie if it wasn't because he was overly muscular.

Leon let out a low whistle. "Know who those dudes are, right?" he asked Emil.

"Uh, I think I saw them at Lukas' graduation," he replied. "The deans?"

"Bingo." Leon gave him a victory peace sign. "Weird how this university has two deans running the shows together. Different personalities, too."

Emil remembered now. "Yeah."

"So which do you like better?"

"Uh…I guess Augustus* is cool, but Folkert** is more serious about what the school really needs."

Leon laughed. "I think I like Augustus just because he's pretty laid-back."

"Oh."

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the very first crash classes meeting in Eliatha University history!" Augusts announced in a cheery voice.

"So that's why our family's never told us about this," Leon snorted. "It's the first. Wake me when it's over, okay?"

"Leon!" Emil hissed, but he had already dozed off. He could understand why. Every night after Leon would go to bed, he would stay up to check his social networking status and message his relatives overseas. So, for better or for worse, Emil let him sleep while he listened to the lecture.

When it was over, Leon felt a nudge from his side and heard a cluttering stampede of students getting up to walk.

"Hnn?" he muttered. "It's over?"

"Yep," Emil said. "You're in the sosh majors so you have to walk over to the east. I'm going west. I'll see you at lunch."

"Huh?" Leon blinked. "You going to be alright?"

"I'm not a child, Leon. I can take care of myself."

"Sure you can. Fine. I'll text you when I'm done."

"Whatever," Emil mumbled and disappeared with the rest of the natural science majors.

Emil's first crash class was biology. As expected by the size of the class and the details his brother had given him, the entire lecture hall was overflowing with freshmeat piling up over the chairs. He was about to take a seat in the back when he heard someone calling out his name.

"Emil!"

When he looked over in the direction of the voice, he saw Michelle waving to him. Like the other times he had seen her, she was wearing a dress; this time, it was a deep maroon. Lili was sitting quietly beside her wearing a sunny yellow dress that complimented her golden hair.

"Oh. Hey, you two," he said as he hastily sat beside Michelle.

"I thought I'd see you here," the Seychellois beamed. "So where'd Leon go?"

"He's a business management major so he's at the sosh buildings."

Interestingly, Michelle tilted her head. "Sosh?" she repeated.

"O-Oh. It's short for social science," Emil explained. "Um…Th-That reminds me. Lili, where are you from? I never found out."

"Um…" The timid zoology major clutched her dress. Emil was pretty amazed at this; he never thought he would meet someone shyer than him in Eliatha University. "I'm from Lichtenstein."

Emil blinked. "Really? So…I'm assuming you're rich, then."

The girl blushed. "I wouldn't really say too rich. It's only because of my brother's side of the family."

"Oh, yeah. You mentioned something about your brother yesterday." Emil paused. "So does he go here?"

Lili nodded. "Mm-hmm. He's an accounting major. A sophomore."

"That's nice." He managed a smile hoping she wouldn't be too shy around him. He had been in her position several times when hanging around Leon. "My brother went here, too, but he's in the medical program at the grad school now."

"Oh."

_No point in sticking around that subject, Emil_, he told himself. "Uh, so, why'd you want to go into zoology?"

His question got a smile out of Lili. "I want to be a veterinarian," she told him. "I've always loved animals."

"Cool." Emil looked back at Michelle. "What about you? You have any reason for being a marine bio major?"

Michelle smiled in a far-off way. "It's because with the changes in the climate, the fish back at home are changing their behaviors. We're not getting as many fish visiting the islands like we used to, and because of that, not as many tourists are visiting." She cradled her chin on her hands. "I want people from all over the world to see what a beautiful place my home-country is, and I hope that when they visit, they'll be able to see all of the fish, too."

Then, she laughed. "It sounds like a silly dream, but that's really why I studied hard to get in this school."

"That's…understandable," Emil said. He would have thought that for someone coming all the way from Africa, it was a big step in being able to fulfill her dream. Perhaps he should have given Michelle more credit than she had.

"Alright, everyone!" someone from the front called across the lecture hall. "Are you kids in the right room? You want to be in biology, right?"

There was a hum of nods and "Yes" buzzing throughout the students so the person (whom Emil assumed was the professor) cleared his throat and commenced the beginning of the crash class.

"So tell me this: how many of you want to go into med school? Tell me—Raise your hands. Come on, everyone. Raise your hands and let me see 'em."

Emil, Michelle, and Lili watched as nearly eighty percent of the entire hall raised their hands on command.

"M'kay," the professor nodded. "And you know that it's a big deal even being able to get into this school, but only about ten percent of you are going to be able to get into a real medical school." He paused to let that process through the students' heads. "And tell me this, how many of you want to go to E.U.'s med program?"

Like last time, nearly eighty percent of the students raised their hands.

The professor nodded again. "Mm. Well, I have to tell you this: only about one percent of you are going to be good enough to get in. One. So welcome to the first course of biology, kids. Now, I know some of you are only taking this course to fulfill some engineering or psychology requirement, but you've gotta understand that it's not just all fun and games.

"For most of you, this'll be the first test to see if you have what it takes to really study your asses off and pull with an A. 'Cause if you don't get that A, why are you even here?"

Some of the students looked at one another when the professor finished. Emil was trying to picture what his brother must've looked like when this professor told him the same thing.

_Then again, he doesn't show too many expressions_, he flatly thought. All the same, he knew he had to study hard, as well, if he was going to pass the class. While he wasn't here to become a doctor, he was here because he wanted to study the aquaculture and behavioral patterns in the fish back at his country of birth. It wasn't going to be all fun and games. Michelle and Lili had their reasons for being here, and Emil wasn't about to say his reason was any less significant.

"On that note," the professor continued, "I'm just going to go over the syllabus, and just a brief overview on what you need to buy for this class by Thursday. Those of you who already registered—and I'm sure that's ninety-nine percent of you—should know that the syllabus is online, but rules are rules, so I've gotta go through it."

And so the rest of the lecture was spent listening to the professor go over the syllabus. After finishing, Lili went off to her mathematics class while Emil and Michelle went off to the visual arts building.

"It sounds scary trying to become a doctor," Michelle commented while they were walking to their next course. Since Lukas had instructed Emil on how to get to his classes before moving in, Emil led the way. "I knew more people wanted to become doctors than real biologists, but he didn't have to say it like that."

Emil shrugged. "That's just how the real world works. My brother—wait, did I tell you he's studying to become a doctor?"

Michelle searched through her thoughts for a moment. "I don't remember," she finally said.

"Well, my older brother—his name's Lukas—is at Eliatha's med school. He was one of those one percent the professor was talking about."

"Oh! So he's smart!"

"Mm-hmm. He knew about how tough it was so he studied his…behind off. He told me about how hard it was, but I can't really relate. I didn't want to take the medical route."

"It would have been interesting if you had, though," Michelle giggled. "Your parents would have been happy."

Emil furrowed his eyebrows. "They said they were happy with whatever I chose. I think getting into Eliatha University was enough to brag about. I don't know about you, Michelle, but…"

"Oh, my grandpa was really happy when I got the acceptance letter," she beamed. "He said I would be going to the best school for research. I told him he was going to be proud of me when I came home to see him. It's going to be a while…"

"Aren't you going back for the summer?"

Michelle shook her head. "We can't afford to send me back every year so I'm going to stay here until my student visa is used up."

"Oh." He couldn't relate since he and Lukas lived within driving distance. "You think you're going to be homesick?"

She shook her head. "I'll be fine. This is a wonderful country***."

Emil smiled. "I'm glad you like it." Then, he turned his attention away from her for a moment to see the visual arts building coming into view. "We're here."

Michelle smiled. "I wonder what sort of teacher we're going to have."

"Hopefully not someone like that prick of a bio professor," Emil grumbled.

"Yeah," she laughed. It sounded nice being able to make her laugh.

Leon was stuck in economics. The lecture hall was fairly large, but despite the concentration, he managed to find Charles and Cécile sitting together interestingly enough.

"Well, well," he smirked as he invited himself over. "Didn't think you two were a thing."

Charles scowled. "We are not," he refuted. "I just so happened to remember her name and face from a distance and decided to sit with her."

"Right." Leon smirked even wider. "So, like, what's you major, Cissy?"

In response, Cécile narrowed her eyes and adjusted her glasses. "That nickname is only reserved for friends, Mr. Leon."

"Ouch. So, like, I'm not your friend?"

"You are not deserving of being one of mine," she coldly responded.

"Whatever." Leon was fine with it either way. It wasn't hard to faze him when it came to socializing since he had seen his fair share back in Hong Kong. "You gonna tell me your major?"

"Business management," she said.

"Sweet. So am I."

"What a small world." Judging from her tone, Leon thought she could have been sarcastic.

"But, you know, you don't look like you'd be going in that field," Leon pointed out.

"How _very_ observant." So she was being sarcastic. "I plan on using the experience to go into casino management."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Where are you from, again?"

"Monaco."

That explained it. "Monte Carlo?" he guessed.

Cécile adjusted her glasses once more. Leon was used to seeing that gesture since Cheng would often do that. "Your concept of geography is not as poor as I thought, Mr. Leon."

"Heh," he dryly laughed. "I get that a lot."

Then, the Monacan threw him a sly smile. "I'm sure you get the ladies with that, too," she sneered.

_Double ouch._ If it wasn't because Leon had been used to worse, he might have winced. Some of the Hong Kongers could tell it like they meant it.

"Alright, you little shits, settle down."

Upon hearing that profanity, the entire hall quieted down. Leon suspected he'd hear at least one of his professors use curse words. So this would be at least one of them. This professor's hair distinctly reminded him of Mathias, but his hair was slightly neater in the upright sense and his eyes were a deep green. Oddly enough, he had a scar on his forehead that complimented the scowl on his face. In short, this professor didn't look like the kind to fuck around with.

_Guess I'm not going to joke around in his office hours_, Leon thought.

"So I know most of you kids just want to take this class to get something out of the way. Really, what you get out of your money is what you pay for, but it's up to you if you want to learn the material." The professor paused to say something off his microphone. "If you're going to stay in this class, I'm Professor—Screw it. Forget that. Just call me Tim****. Most of you stupid shits aren't going to pronounce the Dutch part correctly, anyway."

"Ooookay." Leon rubbed the back of his neck. So he was Dutch.

"I'm just going to go over the syllabus, and I'll let you all out early," Tim said, plopping a pen in his mouth and flipping through some slides on the projector. "I'll bet none of your R.A.s told you what you needed so you don't have to take notes."

He looked up and did a quick head count of the students. "This is a big class, anyway, but you're welcome to do whatever the hell you want in the classroom: play games, nap, check your phones…

"But if I hear any music or snoring or any of that other crap, I'll fail you. I'm nice enough that I let you do pretty much whatever so be respectful. And don't smoke, either. Do that outside in designated areas. You don't want to be that guy who sets off the sprinklers and pisses off your peers. Now, with that being done…"

And then Leon fell asleep.

"The syllabus is online, anyway," he muttered to Charles and Cécile before leaning back and dozing off. Emil had told him he didn't snort so he wouldn't have to worry about being disruptive.

The culinary professor was what Emil's mother might have called a "ladies' man." He took the time to know a few personal things about each of the female students and even kissed each one on the back of their hands.

Normally Emil would have rolled his eyes, but despite being a professor, this guy played the part: suave, smooth-talker, seductive accent, clean and husky build…

"…And what might your name be, my pretty little snowflower?" the professor asked Emil.

By the gods, if Leon had been there, he would be laughing his ass off.

"Emil Steilsson," he replied using as deep and disinterested a voice as possible. "I'm a guy."

Instead of looking flustered or shocked, to Emil's disturbed surprised, the professor only smiled. "But of course I knew that," he chuckled. "I was just hoping to know the name of such an esteemed and exotic little lilac blossoming in my wonderful studio of the edible arts."

_Is this guy for real?_ Emil wondered.

"So your name is Emil," the professor said, placing his hand on his shoulder. "It's nice to have someone with such silvery hair and such an innocent look in my class. You must be quite the ladies' man."

_I could say the same about you_, Emil wanted to say. "Um…not really, professor. I'm sort of…awkward."

"Then, you are a lucky boy to be in my class. When you come out, you'll be ready to take on the beautiful world with a confident cooking style to call your own."

"I hope so," he responded with a doubtful smile. He wasn't sure if the professor was just that good or just that arrogant. If Mathias was a little smoother with women and talked in a funny French accent, he thought their arrogance might be on the same level.

Whatever the case, his professor would not be able to prove his skills on the first day. The only thing they did was run over the syllabus and go over a few safety instructions and equipment they were expected to bring to each class. Thankfully the class was only once a week. Emil didn't think he wanted to be seen carrying his own apron around campus for more than one day.

"…And if you are ever looking for tips to perfect your true sense of art," the professor (who insisted everyone call him Francis) finished, "just come to my office, and I'll be more than delighted to show you a thing or two about _true_ taste palettes."

Emil didn't know why, but several of the girls giggled at his offer. _Oh, brother. I just hope chem doesn't end up being like this._

Fortunately for him, Emil's chemistry professor was not a seductive bastard.

"I've had people fail this class so don't be discouraged on your first try," he said. "It's hard, but it's not that hard. Just keep up on your toes, and practice, practice, practice, and you'll be good to go. Don't be afraid to come to my office hours. Since it's a hard subject, I almost host review sessions. I'm not going to have them the first week because honestly, I don't think anyone gives a damn until midterms roll around. I'll post a schedule online when I get the T.A.'s all together. Any questions?"

No one raised their hand.

"Good," the professor said. "So I figured since we still have…Let's see...Ten minutes, I'll just start a little with the lecture. We'll continue on Thursday, but I figured we might as well get a head start. Chem's a busy, busy class, and we've got a lot to cover."

The rest of the crash class was spent reviewing individual components of the periodic table. After everything was done, Emil's brain was practically fried. He made the excuse that he was only acting as such because he hadn't had anything in his stomach.

"I think Professor Adnan***** was nice," Lili said after leaving with him. They had planned on meeting back up with their roommates in front of Opal Hall for a late lunch.

"I guess he's alright," Emil muttered. "I think my brother had him. He's a little kooky, but he knows what he's doing—as long as you go to his office hours."

Lili flinched. "I forgot to write them down! Emil, do you have his office hours?"

"Eh, yeah, hang on…"

Since they were without notebooks Emil had to resort to recording everything on his phone. Just as he was about to show Lili, his phone began to vibrate.

"Goddammit!" he cursed and saw that the contact number read "Big Brother."

"Big Brother?" Lili read aloud.

"Yeah," Emil distastefully replied. "Um, excuse me for a sec. I have to take his calls." _Otherwise he'll come all the way down here, knowing him._

"H-Hello?" he reluctantly spoke into the phone.

"Ah. So you're out of class."

Emil made a face. "How'd you know about that? The deans said this was the first time the school had crash classes."

"I have my ways," his brother teasingly said.

"Lukas…" Emil looked over at Lili. He still had to give her the chemistry professor's office hours. "I have to do something for someone. Can you call me back?"

"What was that I heard? Sounded like some mumbling on the other end."

"_Grrgh!_" he growled. "Please don't make me do this in front of her!"

"In front of who? Is that still static I hear?"

_Gods, Lukas!_ "B-Brother, I need you to call me back."

"Ah, why didn't you say so?" Lukas teased.

"Idiot…" Emil grumbled over the phone. He could've sworn he heard his brother chuckling.

"Is tonight fine, then?"

Emil gritted his teeth. "Tonight is _perfect_. Bye." He was glad to hang up. All the while, Lili was still waiting.

"Ah, so, um…Was that your brother?" she asked.

"Yeah," he shamefully said. "Hard to believe someone so annoying was at the top of his class, right?"

Lili only giggled. "I think it's nice having a brother with a sense of humor."

Emil had to roll his eyes. "You don't know my brother's sense of humor, Lili. Trust me."

Eventually, Emil and Lili met up with Leon who happened to run into Yong Soo on the way.

"Yo, so you guys like your teachers?" the Korean asked.

"They're very…interesting," was all Emil could say. "I've got a cynical bio professor, a kinky culinary instructor, and a loud chemistry one."

"Sweet," Leon smirked. "Can't beat mine. My econ teacher lets us do whatever as long as we're not making noise or smoking some kind of joint."

Emil's expression fell flat. "Oh." So this was the esteemed Eliatha University at its finest.

"Charles and Cécile are in that class, too," Leon added.

"Speaking of those two, where are they?" Yong Soo asked. "I kinda thought we'd see the others here by now."

Emil shrugged. Unlike Lili, he didn't have the others' numbers so all he could do was wait. The sooner they met up with them, the sooner they would get to eat.

Soon enough, the others came around, and so, they all decided to eat together, sharing their first college class experiences. No one's instructor could quite top the culinary professor, though.

"Gee," Leon commented when Emil and Michelle had finished taking turns describing their class. "You sure he's not, like, bi or something?"

"Uh, well, we're not minors anymore so I guess he can't really be considered a pedophile…" Emil brought up.

"I thought he was nice," Michelle piped up.

"Er, whatever you say." He wasn't about to let his guard down in the kitchen.

"Don't worry, Ice," Leon said, slinging his arm around his friend's shoulder. "If he gives you trouble, just tell me, okay?"

"Whatever, Leon," Emil frowned. He didn't think he'd be getting any trouble any time soon, anyway.

The rest of the afternoon had been spent eating and talking about their classes. It was only when everyone decided to return to their dorms that Emil thought to run over his syllabi.

"Should've checked them sooner," he mumbled as he scanned over his chemistry syllabus. "It says here that I need lab coats this year. Lukas didn't say I needed those things."

Leon looked up from his phone. "Must be because the school wants money," he assumed. "So what're you going to do?"

"Well, I checked online, and it says the coats are always cheaper to buy somewhere off-campus."

"Have you at least looked at what the prices are at the student store?"

"No, but I was planning to."

"Cool, we can go together," Leon said jumping off his bed. "I need to purchase some test booklets for my classes."

"Oh, yeah, I have to buy scantrons, too," Emil groaned. "Lukas said I shouldn't believe what the upperclassmen say. The scantrons are only supposed to be a few coins each."

"Yeah, Mei and Cheng told me about that," Leon said. "They still have some scantrons from when they were in college. I still need the books, though. C'mon, are you ready?"

"Hang on. I just want to make sure I don't need anything else." As he looked through his culinary class's syllabus, he scowled at the thought of having to purchase his own apron and recipe book written specifically for the class. According to the syllabus, the apron and recipe book were available at the student store. On top of that, he needed a lab manual for his chemistry class. It looked like he would have to do some extra shopping.

"M'kay. I think I'm done," he said as he closed his laptop. "It's not cheap being a bio major."

Leon laughed. "Sure you wanna still study those whales?"

"Shut up."

"Okay, okay, I got it."

"I'm ready."

"Right, let's go." Leon took a moment to make sure he had his wallet and student identification on him. Emil did the same.

On their way out, Leon noticed there was a sign on their door as they locked it.

"What the hell…?" He looked closer.

Emil made a face. "Free condoms and lube at my room. Feliks," he read. "How come I didn't hear him writing it on our door?"

"Beats me. Hey, so, like, wanna get some when we come back?"

"What?" The thought of ever needing condoms or lubricants in school was absurd.

"You know, just to see how they work," Leon innocently said.

"I don't understand you some times…"

"Heh. I'm used to that by now." He paused. "Oh, by the way. Emil?"

"What?"

"I had a dream about you last night."

* * *

*Unofficial name for Roman Empire.

**Unofficial name for Germania.

***Eliatha along with Academy W is in a fictitious country.

****Unofficial name for Netherlands.

*****Turkey's surname. He's the chemistry professor. Er, just deal with it.


	8. Chapter 8

"Forty heta for a lab coat?!"

"Take it or leave it." The person manning the register looked as though he could care less whichever way.

Leon (who had already decided that three heta for three test booklets was too expensive) could empathize with his distraught friend's reaction.

"Ice, you know what? Let's blow this joint," he suggested. "We're going somewhere else."

Emil was about to protest and prepare his wallet when Leon grabbed him by his shoulder and dragged him outside.

"Wh-What's your problem?" he snapped. Before he could say anymore, Leon shot a finger out at him.

"We're going to be doing things the Cantonese way," his Cantonese friend said without any loss of composure in his cool demeanor.

Emil had to narrow his eyes at his wording. "And what would the Cantonese way of doing things be?" he dared to ask.

"We're gonna haggle."

"Leon—"

"Just kidding. We're going to do some comparative shopping."

Exasperated, Emil furrowed his eyebrows. "But that means we have to go back into town, and I bet it's only going to save a few heta."

"Money makes the world go 'round, little snowflake," Leon told him.

"I wish you would just stay with one nickname…" Emil grumbled. He was accustomed to being called "snowflake" by his best friend, but sometimes, he wished he would stay consistent with what he addressed him by. "Ice" was fine. "Snowflake" sounded a little feminine.

"Leon, need I remind you that time is also money?"

"You got anything else better to do?"

"Well…" Emil thought about it. "Besides playing _Hetalia Fantasia_ and running into Lukas again, no, I guess not—"

"Fantastic. We're going back to town."

So, it was back on the bus and into town for the two of them. Leon would have invited Lili and Michelle considering they needed to buy supplies, too, but for reasons unspecified, they were too preoccupied for the day.

"Guess it's just you and me, Ice," Leon said as he clicked his phone screen off.

"I'm fine with that," he replied, looking out of the window.

For the most part, the bus ride was quiet except for Leon making a comment about the merchandise. To save some time, he took the opportunity to look up the prices of aprons, lab coats, and possible recipe books in the area. After a while, however, his expression turned a little sour.

"_Tch_," he clicked his tongue. "You know what, Ice?"

"What?" Emil didn't even bother looking up.

"I think that, like, no matter what, you have to buy your recipe book from E.U. I can't find it anywhere in retail."

Sighing, Emil rolled his eyes. "Makes sense, I guess. The instructor wrote that book."

"Seriously?" Leon arched his eyebrows. "So, like, he's one of _those_ professors?"

"Guess so. Like I said: he's kind of like a promiscuous Mathias." His comment made Leon chuckle.

Speaking of the loud-mouthed Dane, someone with an equally loud (if not louder) mouth came making his way into the bus as though it was his birthright.

"Ja, that's right," he practically screamed into his phone. "Hold up. I'm on the bus." At this point, neither Leon nor Emil could understand what he was saying since he began speaking in some foreign language.

Just then, Emil flinched as Leon's arm shot out in front of him brandishing a phone.

"What the heck!" he hissed.

"_Shhh!_" Leon snapped. "Look at that guy! He's got white hair just like you!"

So he did. That made three people in the world Emil knew with white hair. Judging from the color of his roots, he could tell his hair was his natural color. The person sporting the hair wasn't particularly old-looking, and on top of that, he had the brightest red eyes he had ever seen. He was a true albino.

"Gonna take a few pics…" Emil then heard his mischievous friend say as he took a few snapshots.

"Are you crazy, Leon? That guy doesn't look like someone to be messing with!"

"Just a few more, Ice," Leon only smirked and finished up with a few more snapshots.

Just then, the albino clicked his phone off, stopped talking, and began to walk towards the back—where Leon and Emil happened to be sitting.

_Crap, crap, crap!_ Emil gasped.

When he stopped, the loud albino leaned on one of the holding posts and leaned towards the speechless boys.

"Like what you see?" he asked with a cocky smirk.

Emil, unable to register what he had just heard, had to leave Leon to do the talking.

"Er, uh, yeah. Totally." Thankfully, Leon was better at controlling his expressions than Emil. He managed to hold an appreciative smile. "My friend, here, has white hair, and we really don't see others with it."

"Of course not!" the man grinned. "If everyone did, then I wouldn't be as awesome!"

_Uh…_ Emil was starting to get the feeling that this man was similar to Mathias in more ways than just his loud voice. He had the same ego problems, and just like his brother's Danish friend, he wasn't afraid to flaunt it.

"I can get that," Leon replied. "So what's your name?"

The man seemed to look at them with what appeared to be a disgusted look. Or perhaps it was shock? Horror? Emil couldn't tell which one it was.

"You guys freshmen?" the man finally asked.

"Yeah," Leon nonchalantly replied.

"I'll let you guys off the hook this time, but from now on, you'll both remember me as Gilbert Beilschmidt." Then, he turned around and shouted into the bus. "Did you guys hear that?! If you guys don't know my name, then I'll fail you!"

All the while as he was giving his episode, Leon and Emil wore shocked looks on their faces. No one who had met Gilbert Beilschmidt forgot about him. That being said, their family never told them what he looked like—only that they would remember him when they came across his path.

When the rest of the passengers aboard the bus seemed to get the memo, Gilbert returned his attention to the freshmeat.

"So what're your guys' majors?" he asked.

"Marine biology," Emil instantly replied.

"Business management," Leon coughed shortly after.

Gilbert clicked his tongue. "_Scheisse._ And here I was hoping you'd get the privilege of being taught by my awesomeness."

"Yeah, what a shame," Leon sarcastically remarked. Emil would have been afraid for his friend, but thankfully, due to Gilbert's overly inflated ego, the sarcasm passed through him like rubber darts bouncing off a tank.

"If you're ever thinking about transferring to engineering, let me know!" the albino shouted. Then, as if on cue, the bus stopped, opened its doors, and allowed Gilbert to step off with a flamboyant stride. A few seconds later, the bus closed its doors back up again and continued to drive on.

When Leon and Emil were sure they were out of hearing range from their recent conversationalist, they breathed sighs of relief.

"Oh, shit," Leon wheezed.

"I thought he was going to kill us…" Emil shuddered.

"Nah, that's illegal."

Gilbert Beilschmidt. It was a notorious name more than it was a revered one. Despite the eccentric and arrogant professor having made achievements in engineering and computer sciences, his character was something that could have used an enormous deal of improvement. His classes—much like Emil's culinary instructor—required textbooks written by him. Students had complained about how the textbooks lacked the necessary information needed to pass the course, and the text were said to have been riddled with exaggerations on how "awesome Dr. Gilbert Beilschmidt" was. In short, students unfortunate to be left with no alternative were not happy when attending his classes.

On the other hand, Gilbert also had a younger brother, an engineering professor as well. While Gilbert earned his postgraduate academic degree in computer sciences, Ludwig Beilschmidt, his brother, earned his in mechanics. Ludwig's classes were said to be generally practical and easy to understand. Reviews said his curriculum was strict, but in the long run, at the very least his students left his classes knowing how to use the material into further studies.

"Thank gosh I'm not in engineering," Leon groaned. "You know back when Cheng was finishing up his stats major, he actually had a class with him?"

"No way," Emil gaped. "He did?"

"Yeah. It was on game theory. You know what that is, right?"

"Something about economics," Emil muttered. To fulfill his upper division social science requirements, Lukas had taken game theory, too. The details about the class were fuzzy, however.

"Well, I guess, like, the previous professor had a falling out with the school or something so Beilschmidt taught it that year," Leon explained, making a face. "But, like, I think after the reviews, it was the last term he taught it, too. Cheng said it was bad."

Emil made a face. "If Cheng thought it was bad, then it had to be bad."

"Totally. You know what I think?"

"What?"

"That dude needs to get laid."

"Th—But—! Leon, not so loud!"

"It's the truth," he innocently defended himself. "Oh, but you know what? Mei. You know how she loves to gossip, right?"

"Uh…I try not to think about it," Emil reluctantly said. Leon's cousin was a nice person. He didn't want to think poorly of her.

"Well, she was friends with Bella—you know. Carriedo's girl."

"Huh?" Emil was completely lost.

"Oh, you're hopeless." Leon rolled his eyes. "Basically, Bella, this grad student who's friends with Mei, told her Dr. Gilbert—man, that sounds funny—used to have a girlfriend."

Emil smirked. "Look who's the gossiping one now."

"You wanna hear this or not?"

"I'm listening."

"So, anyway, the girl was kind of in a shaky relationship. I don't think anyone who went out with that guy would have lasted long. But you know something interesting?"

"What?"

"After Gil's girlfriend broke up with him, she went back to some other guy." Leon took a moment to let Emil take the entire information in. "And you know who the guy's she's dating still is?"

"Who?"

"Ol' Roddy back at the academy."

"Huh? Mr. Roderich?" Emil blinked. "Seems kind of weird. They're really different."

"Tell me about it."

"He and Gilbert are nothing alike."

"That's what I told Mei, but apparently it's the truth."

"Weird."

After a while, the conversation was dropped, and Leon and Emil were left wondering what they had initially been concerned about to begin with.

"Something about comparative shopping?" Emil suggested.

"Well, yeah, I got that part down," Leon frowned. It was as though he had forgotten something important—something that was fleetingly or spontaneously important that should have been brought up right as Dr. Beilschmidt had finished talking to them.

Then, it struck him. "Oh, fuck," he cursed.

Emil looked up. "Leon?"

"Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck…" Leon flopped back down on his seat. "The bus stop we were supposed to get off at was the same one Gil' got off of."

Emil froze. "…So…in other words, we have to…"

"Yep. We have to go all the way around again."


	9. Chapter 9

Lukas was not forgiving when his dear little brother told him about the details of his unfortunate afternoon.

"If you had called me first, you wouldn't have gone through this kind of trouble," he said after Emil finished complaining about the extra two hours they ended up taking. At least he was able to save fifteen heta on the lab coat and ten more on a retail-bought apron.

"I can't rely on you forever, Lu—Brother," Emil grunted. "I'm eighteen now. I can take care of myself."

Lukas nearly chuckled. "You're clinging a great deal to Leon for someone who says he's an adult."

"Th-That's because we're friends!" he snapped. "And don't give me that crap about how you do fine without Mathias—because I know you rely on him, too!"

He had a point there, but Lukas, being the slightly stubborn older brother that he was, refused to admit it.

"Anyway, you bought all of your supplies, correct?"

"Yes."

"And Beilschmidt didn't give you any trouble?"

"No. But he said he would fail everyone on the bus if we didn't remember who he was."

"…I don't think you're going to forget about him."

"Definitely not," Emil grumbled. "Um…so what about you? Are you settled in?"

"For the most part," his brother replied. "But Mathias still comes in uninvited every now and again."

Emil chuckled. "So he's still doing that." While his brother had the privilege of getting a single room, he was still interrupted by Mathias whose uncle happened to be the dean in the Department of Health and Social Sciences. Because of his connections, Lukas' childhood friend had free access to Lukas' dorm—so as long as he was present in the room which, unfortunately for him, happened to be quite often.

"Housing hasn't considered letting me buy my own locks," Lukas sighed. "It's considered violating school property."

"…It's just a few more years," Emil said trying to find a cushion for his brother's uneasiness. "After that, you and Mathias won't have to see each other as often."

"I wonder about that…" his brother replied in an otherworldly voice.

"Yo, Emil!" Leon had just gotten back from a short errand. It had taken less time than Emil thought.

"Ah, I hear your friend," Lukas then said. "I think I'll leave you alone until Thursday then."

"But—"

"You said you're and adult now, right? You don't need to call me every day. I'm not your mother. Thinking about that, you should give our parents a call, too. I'm sure they're worried about you."

"Y-Yeah," Emil sighed. "Okay. I'll call you later, then."

"Bye, little brother."

Emil wrinkled his nose. Leon was right behind him as though waiting for him to call Lukas his dear "Big Brother."

Sighing, he gave in and finished off his call. "Bye, Big Brother." With that, he hung up and looked back at his friend. "So where'd you go? You got back pretty fast."

Much to his immediate regret, he saw that his friend was wearing a particularly large grin on his face. "Check it out," he said as he dug into his pocket and pulled out multiple multi-colored square packages. Emil wasn't too well-versed in the brands, but he could distinctively make out the label, "F.M. Bunny."

"No…" He shook his head in disbelief. "Leon, you didn't…"

"I sure did," he smiled and tossed him a small golden package. When Emil caught it, he looked at the labeling and reluctantly squeezed the contents beneath the shiny wrapping. As expected, he felt a rubbery, circular ring moving around in between his thumbs. The feeling of the package was enough to tell him what it was. Reading it only furthered the validation.

"Ribbed for extra sensation," he mumbled, reading the features aloud. "Cherry-flavored—Leon, seriously?"

"What? You wanted strawberry-flavored?"

"No! I wanted neither!" He threw the package back at his friend and climbed to the top of his bed where his laptop was sitting. "I can't believe you actually took them from Feliks!"

Leon passively shrugged. "They were free so I thought, like, why not?"

"Why not?" Emil echoed. "Why do it at all?"

"Hey, why are you being so sensitive about this?" Leon chuckled. "Did you think I swiped all the good ones?"

"No! I mean, what if—You took so many! What if Feliks thinks that we're—?" Just thinking about it made the fragile-minded boy flush red and bury his face in his pillow.

"Aww, you're afraid he'll think we're a thing?" his friend teased. He could read him like a book. "Relax. The only thing we have to say is 'No.' He'll get it. But, like, I thought it'd be awkward buying them at a store before turning eighteen. I don't know why, but getting them from Feliks seems okay. He's not bad for an R.A."

"Leon…" Emil groaned.

"You know, I've never tried them before," Leon continued, ignoring his friend's discomfort. "I think Yao would have flipped if he saw me trying them out at home. You know how he is. He'd be asking me if the girl was smart, or Asian, or what kind of Asian…"

"Leon, I can't believe you..."

"You ever try them before?"

"No, I have _not_ tried a condom on," Emil snapped. "Stop talking about them."

"Man." Leon scratched his head. "You're really sensitive about this stuff."

Since he quieted down, Emil thought that perhaps his friend had gotten the memo, but instead of letting it go, he heard someone climbing up the rails to his bed.

"It's nice up here," he heard Leon say. "I really wish I could've gotten the top bunk."

"Get off!" Emil screamed. "Get down! You're annoying! Take your stupid condoms away and practice them on someone else!"

Leon blinked. "Huh. Is that really what this is all about? Ice, I don't see you in that way. You don't have to worry."

"Leon…" Emil was growling through his teeth. He was wondering just when his friend would leave him alone.

"Fine." Leon pulled back his hands and jumped down from his bed. "Someone's on her period."

"So annoying…" Frustrated, Emil pulled his covers over his head and dug his face into his pillow. He was exhausted after everything that had happened. All he wanted to do was take a nap.

"Leon," he mumbled through his sheets.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to take a nap. Don't bother me."

"Gotcha."

* * *

Emil didn't get much sleep because within a few minutes after dozing off, a loud blaring noise shot into his eardrums.

"Holy Elia—!" he gasped as he hit his head against the ceiling with a _thunk_. "Ow…"

"Aw, crap, are you serious?" Leon groaned from below. Cursing, he shut his laptop closed and grabbed his keys, the noise blaring continuously into both of their ears.

"Le—" But Emil's voice was drowned out from the noise. Having just been woken up, his heart was racing, and his ears were ready to pop from the intensity of the alarm. Outside, he could hear students already exiting their dorms and groaning about the sudden inconvenience. Then, Feliks began pounding on all of the doors.

"Fire drill!" he shouted. "Meet me downstairs in front of the quad!"

"Fuck," Leon cursed. "Ice, grab your keys and phone."

"Don't need to tell me what to do," Emil grumbled and threw on his shoes. This happened in very dorm at the beginning of the year, he had been told. Even the graduate students had to go through something like this in the case of an emergency. So today would be his first one.

In the case of a real fire hazard, elevators were prohibited. As a result, the stairwells were completely clogged with students trying to get out of the hall and away from the noise.

"Pah," Leon dryly laughed. "This is like a fire hazard, itself. All these people shouldn't be clustered around the same place like this."

"They can't help it," Emil said. "It's annoying being in here."

When they did manage to squeeze out of the stairwell, Feliks was at the quad as previously announced. At first Emil thought he should have been performing a head count of his residents when he remembered not everyone was presently in the dorms at this time. Some of them might have even strayed away to pass the time.

"Ugh," Leon groaned. "Ice, you wanna stop by Hatches. I haven't been that way yet. Maybe we can get some ice cream."

"Er…" Emil paused to look back at Opal Hall being overrun by students coming out and complaining. "Sure, why not? There's nothing else better to do here."

So, the two friends ditched the fire drill and headed up in the direction of the classroom buildings.

"I think it closes at the same time dinner at the D.C. does," Leon said as he checked his phone. "You've got your E-card, right?"

"Yeah," he replied. While also counting as their access into Opal Hall and into their bedrooms, their Eliatha University identification cards (popularly known as E-cards by the campus) also acted as their meal plan counter and point card for purchases.

At the beginning of each year, a balance of roughly a hundred and fifty heta was added into the students' cards to be used towards services such as laundry, on-campus stores, and the dining facilities. Like the Bonnefoy Dining Center, the students' E-cards could be used towards places like Hatches.

"Mathias told me they have really good Danishes," Emil said as they followed the signs guiding them along the right path. "Of course, he said they weren't as good as the ones he makes, but if he says they're good, they have to be good."

"Hmm. Guess I'll grab one for breakfast when I come up here on Thursday."

"Yeah. They're probably not fresh right now—if they have anything."

Lukas, Mei, and Cheng had told them about the morning rushes. Crowds after crowds of students would rush into Hatches before their morning classes and snag the pastries.

While all of the pastries were generally praised for being delicious, the most famous of them all were their dragon puffs. Why they were called dragon puffs, no one remembered, but the delectable consisted of fluffy baked dough with a fine coat of powder sugar on top of crispy, golden crust. Inside was either hot fudge, cream, or sometimes a type of jam made courtesy of the culinary arts school. Since each one of these addictive goodies could be downed in a single bite and bought by the dozen, they were considered a rare delicacy, and because of their popularity and relatively low cost, they were usually gone before noon.

"Emil, we totally have to get dragon puffs one day," Leon said.

"Uh-huh," Emil fully agreed. If his brother didn't deny enjoying them. "We'd have to wake up early, though."

"I'm fine with that." When push came to shove, Leon was able to get up shockingly early without being fazed.

When they arrived at Hatches, as expected, there were no more dragon puffs. A large sign in front of the menu's chalkboard told them enough.

"That's cute," Leon chuckled. "They even drew a picture of a dragon." While he was taking a picture, Emil stopped to admire the colorful chalk drawing of the dragon. It was a squat, jolly-looking dragon with an apron and a chef's hat; it was also carrying a tray of what appeared to be dragon puffs. In short, it was a contrast to the real design of Eliatha University's mascot: a sinister, devious-looking black dragon wielding a sword and a scroll.

As they went inside, the rich aroma of coffee, the spicy scent of baked goodies, and the hearty smell of freshly baked breads greeted them by the front counter.

"It's been a while since I've been here," Leon smiled. "I think I came here when Mei graduated, but they were all out of everything. Wonder what we can find now."

"Let's look around and find out," Emil suggested.

In the back, there were trays of exotic breads that they had never seen before—all complete with foreign names. At the cost of his curiosity, Leon took the time to look up the names of each one while Emil browsed through some of the pastries. He was about to walk up to the glass domes when he tripped on someone squatting down in a hidden corner.

"Ggh! Sorry!" he gasped as he regained his balanced.

"Eh?" The person he had accidentally kicked looked up. He looked as though he hadn't been paying attention. Emil thought that if he hadn't taken the time to apologize, his minor injury might have gone completely unnoticed.

"I, um…I tripped over you," Emil guilty told him. "I didn't mean to. I just didn't see you there."

"Oh, no, that's fine," the man laughed. He had a hearty laugh much like Leon, but his aura was warmer and friendlier—and a little more oblivious like Mathias'. "I guess I should be more careful."

"Really, I'm sorry," Emil apologized again.

"No need!" the employee grinned. "I've gotten my fair share of profanity before!"

Emil made a face. "That's not…I don't think I used profanity." _And why would that be something to smile about?_

"Ice, come over here!" Leon suddenly called.

_Oh, thank gods_, Emil breathed in relief and quickly excused himself from the man before meeting up with his friend. When he arrived at his side, he saw that Leon was staring intently at some ice cream behind the glass.

"Did you know they serve crêpes here?" he excitedly asked.

Emil had to smile. If anything besides a new album or a new game could make his friend this excited, it was food.

"I don't think Lukas ever told me about crêpes being served here," he said.

"That's because it's a new item," the lady behind the counter told them. "They just made it a new item about a year ago." Suddenly, she stopped and leaned closer to Emil.

"Hold on," she blinked. "You said you know Lukas?"

"Er…" Emil exchanged looks with Leon. "Yeah. He's my brother."

"I knew it!" she beamed. "You two look so similar! But you're so much cuter than him!"

"N-Not really…" Emil thought that he and Lukas looked nothing alike: he had white hair with pale lavender eyes while his older brother had light blonde hair with dull sapphire eyes.

Then, Leon leaned into his ear. "That's Bella," he whispered. "She was one of Mei's roommates."

"Huh?"

"So cute…" she continued to smile. "Oh, but would you like to try the crêpes?"

"Eh—"

"We sure would," Leon answered for the both of them. "I'll have one with cheesecake, green tea ice cream, and fudge."

Emil blinked. "Isn't that a little excessive?"

"I'm not eating dinner after this," he justified. "Might as well enjoy it."

"Uh…" Emil had never eaten at the dining commons without Leon. If his friend wasn't going to be eating there tonight, he figured he wouldn't be, either. "Th-Then I'll have one like my friend's—but perhaps with chocolate ice cream, please."

"Sure!" While she set to work making them, Emil returned his attention back on the breads.

"If we're not going to be eating at the D.C., should we get something to go?" he suggested.

"Sure, why not?"

Some of the breads, Emil realized, weren't even European. Some had been made in an Asian style; these were the breads Leon recognized and put on his tray.

"I've always loved these," he said as he loaded up on breads filled with something called "taro" and others with cheese and hams.

"What's taro?" Emil asked.

"Don't worry about it, Ice," Leon replied. "I've got doubles of everything so we can just share. You're a little indecisive when it comes to food."

"Excuse me," he flatly responded.

"Boys, they're ready!" Bella called back to them. Leon was already preparing his E-card so Emil followed, but as he made his way around the corner, his foot ran into someone's leg.

"Crap! I'm sorry!" he hastily apologized. When he saw it was the same person, he wondered if it was the employee's fault or his.

"Oh, don't worry about it," the man said. "That happens from time to time."

_Getting kicked in the leg?_ Emil wondered.

"Toni, try to be more careful," Bella told the employee.

"Ah. Sorry, Bella," the man apologized and ran his hand through his messy brown hair.

"He gets like that from time to time," Bella giggled as she handed Leon and Emil their receipts. "Just ignore him. That's what he does with his surroundings most of the time, anyway."

"What?" her co-worker piped up.

"Nothing, Toni," she giggled. Then, she leaned towards the boys and began to whisper.

"I gave you two a little something special with your breads," she smiled. "I hope you enjoy."

"Th-Thank you," Emil mustered a smile.

"Thanks," Leon added in. "Oh, and Bella? Mei says hi."

The lady looked confused. "How do you know I know Mei?"

"You were her roommate, right? I'm her cousin."

Leon's words seemed to reach her because her green eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh, that's right! You're Leon, correct?"

"Yep."

Bella smiled. "She's always said you were the fashionable one in the family. I see she wasn't lying."

"Heh," Leon chuckled. "Thanks."

"Leon…" Emil grumbled. "Come on. The ice cream's going to melt."

"Ah, sorry," he then said. "I've gotta go. Thanks, again."

"No problem!" Bella giggled. "I hope you two enjoy!"

Once they were outside, Leon suggested looking for a place to sit down and eat.

"Feel's kind of awkward eating when there's a time limit on your food," he said. Eventually they found a spot by the pond where Topaz Hall could be seen on the other side.

"It's good," Emil commented as he chewed through the ice cream cone. Perhaps it was because classes hadn't started yet or because Bella had relations with both Leon and Emil's relatives at some point, but whatever it was, she had gone out of her way to make succulent crêpes for the two of them. Both of their crepes were stuffed to the brim with ice cream and drizzled with fudge on the insides. There was a little slice of cheesecake tucked into the ice cream, and to top it all off, there was a little waffle cone (also filled with ice cream) situated on the tops of each one.

"She really went all out," Leon said as he finished his waffle cone and proceeded with the main crêpe.

"Yeah. She was nice," Emil agreed. "I wonder how she knows Lukas."

"Beats me," his friend shrugged. "But Mei said she's supposed to be a grad student now. And that guy you kept tripping on—"

"Shut up."

"Heh. But seriously, the guy working there is named Antonio, I think. He's a grad student now, too. I think there's something going on between him and Bella, but Bella never told Mei about it."

"Oh."

"Pfft. And you know something else?"

"What?"

"Bella has an older brother. Tim. He just so happens to be my econ professor."

"Huh."

"Mm-hmm." Leon took a bit out of his cheesecake. "Oh, yeah. What was that special thing Bella gave us?"

"I didn't check," Emil said. Then, he thought to open the plastic bag where, wedged in between the breads, there was a little white box.

"This it?" Leon asked as he pulled it out. "Wonder if it's a cake or something. It can't be bread."

"Let's find out." On that note, Emil began to carefully undo the box letting out a fresh, sweet smell drifting up into their noses.

"No way," Leon gasped. "No fucking way."

Emil swallowed. Suddenly, his eyes were torn between his crêpe and the box's contents.

"Dragon puffs," he breathed.


End file.
